Diagnostics (Apr 2020)

Inter-Observer Agreement of a New Endoscopic Score for Ulcerative Colitis Activity: Preliminary Experience

  • Mariabeatrice Principi,
  • Antonella Contaldo,
  • Francesco Paolo Bianchi,
  • Giuseppe Losurdo,
  • Andrea Iannone,
  • Enzo Ierardi,
  • Silvio Tafuri,
  • Alfredo Di Leo,
  • IBD Endoscopy Team Work

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics10040213
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 4
p. 213

Abstract

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Ulcerative colitis (UC) endoscopic scores translate mucosal damage into values standardizing image analysis. Due to potential limits of current endoscopic activity indexes, we have elaborated on a new score, the “Extended Mayo Endoscopic Score (EMES),” and evaluated its inter-observer agreement in a multicenter endoscopy team, comparing concordance with the Mayo subscore. Sixteen UC consecutive patients underwent follow-up colonoscopy. Recorded videos were anonymously loaded on a web platform. Thirteen expert endoscopists evaluated UC activity using both Mayo and EMES. EMES was described in every colon segment: erythema (0: absent, 1: mild, 2: moderate, 3: severe), vascular pattern (0: normal, 1: reduction, 2: disappearance), erosions and ulcers (0: absent, 1: from 1 to 5, 2: 6 to 10, 3: >10). Weighted Fleiss’ kappa with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value defined inter-rater agreement. Global inter-observer agreement of EMES was moderate (kappa = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.46–0.67, p p p p p p p = 0.001). Therefore, our report emphasizes the importance of assessing inter-observer agreement for EMES, but also for other known scoring systems, including the Mayo subscore.

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