Interobserver agreement in defecography--an international study
(1998) In Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie 36(4). p.273-279- Abstract
- BACKGROUND: Defecography is considered to be an essential investigation in the evaluation of functional anorectal disorders, but the agreement between observers from different clinical centers has never been evaluated. METHODS: 14 defecographic studies were selected aimed to cover the most relevant defecographic findings responsible for disordered defecation. Eight studies were considered unequivocal, but six were thought to be controversial. All were sent to the ten participants in Europe and the US (five proctosurgeons, three radiologists, two gastroenterologists). They evaluated the studies using a previously agreed upon questionnaire. Interobserver agreement was quantified by kappa statistics and by the proportions of positive and... (More)
- BACKGROUND: Defecography is considered to be an essential investigation in the evaluation of functional anorectal disorders, but the agreement between observers from different clinical centers has never been evaluated. METHODS: 14 defecographic studies were selected aimed to cover the most relevant defecographic findings responsible for disordered defecation. Eight studies were considered unequivocal, but six were thought to be controversial. All were sent to the ten participants in Europe and the US (five proctosurgeons, three radiologists, two gastroenterologists). They evaluated the studies using a previously agreed upon questionnaire. Interobserver agreement was quantified by kappa statistics and by the proportions of positive and negative agreement as compared to chance agreement, respectively. RESULTS: Overall, only the completeness of rectal emptying and the presence of a rectocele achieved acceptable kappa values above 0.4. When restricting the evaluation to the studies considered to be unequivocal, agreement improved considerably and was moderate to good for all items describing the images (kappa 0.43-0.63). However, whether proctosurgery should be performed and whether defecography contributed to the management of the particular patient remained controversial with very low kappa. CONCLUSIONS: It is doubtful whether defecography contributes substantially to the management of patients with disordered defecation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1113157
- author
- Muller-Lissner, S A ; Bartolo, D C ; Christiansen, J ; Ekberg, Olle LU ; Goei, R ; Hopfner, W ; Infantino, A ; Kuijpers, H C ; Selvaggi, F and Wald, A
- organization
- publishing date
- 1998
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie
- volume
- 36
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 273 - 279
- publisher
- Georg Thieme Verlag
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:9612924
- scopus:7144229365
- ISSN
- 0044-2771
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 094469ab-a490-42ac-8a3a-6f71014c78dc (old id 1113157)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 17:09:46
- date last changed
- 2022-01-29 00:50:00
@article{094469ab-a490-42ac-8a3a-6f71014c78dc,
abstract = {{BACKGROUND: Defecography is considered to be an essential investigation in the evaluation of functional anorectal disorders, but the agreement between observers from different clinical centers has never been evaluated. METHODS: 14 defecographic studies were selected aimed to cover the most relevant defecographic findings responsible for disordered defecation. Eight studies were considered unequivocal, but six were thought to be controversial. All were sent to the ten participants in Europe and the US (five proctosurgeons, three radiologists, two gastroenterologists). They evaluated the studies using a previously agreed upon questionnaire. Interobserver agreement was quantified by kappa statistics and by the proportions of positive and negative agreement as compared to chance agreement, respectively. RESULTS: Overall, only the completeness of rectal emptying and the presence of a rectocele achieved acceptable kappa values above 0.4. When restricting the evaluation to the studies considered to be unequivocal, agreement improved considerably and was moderate to good for all items describing the images (kappa 0.43-0.63). However, whether proctosurgery should be performed and whether defecography contributed to the management of the particular patient remained controversial with very low kappa. CONCLUSIONS: It is doubtful whether defecography contributes substantially to the management of patients with disordered defecation.}},
author = {{Muller-Lissner, S A and Bartolo, D C and Christiansen, J and Ekberg, Olle and Goei, R and Hopfner, W and Infantino, A and Kuijpers, H C and Selvaggi, F and Wald, A}},
issn = {{0044-2771}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{273--279}},
publisher = {{Georg Thieme Verlag}},
series = {{Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie}},
title = {{Interobserver agreement in defecography--an international study}},
volume = {{36}},
year = {{1998}},
}