Smith, V., Beeckman, S., Herrick, A. L., Decuman, S., Deschepper, E., De Keyser, F., Distler, O., Foeldvari, I., Ingegnoli, F., Müller-Ladner, U., Riccieri, V., Riemekasten, G., Sulli, A., Voskuyl, A., Cutolo, M., EULAR study group on microcirculation, & Mostmans, Y. (2016). An EULAR study group pilot study on reliability of simple capillaroscopic definitions to describe capillary morphology in rheumatic diseases. Rheumatology (Oxford, England) , 55(5), 883-890. https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/kev441

@article{a99d01fb217e484c806a2b010604e6e5,
title = "An EULAR study group pilot study on reliability of simple capillaroscopic definitions to describe capillary morphology in rheumatic diseases",
abstract = "OBJECTIVE: To propose simple capillaroscopic definitions for interpretation of capillaroscopic morphologies and to assess inter-rater reliability.METHODS: The simple definitions proposed were: normal--hairpin, tortuous or crossing; abnormal--not hairpin, not tortuous and not crossing; not evaluable--whenever rater undecided between normal and abnormal. Based upon an aimed kappa of 0.80 and default prevalences of normal (0.4), abnormal (0.4) and not evaluable (0.2) capillaries, 90 single capillaries were presented to three groups of raters: experienced independent raters, n = 5; attendees of the sixth EULAR capillaroscopy course, n = 34; novices after a 1-h course, n = 11. Inter-rater agreement was assessed by calculation of proportion of agreement and by kappa coefficients.RESULTS: Mean kappa based on 90 capillaries was 0.47 (95% CI: 0.39, 0.54) for expert raters, 0.40 (95% CI: 0.36, 0.44) for attendees and 0.46 (95% CI: 0.41, 0.52) for novices, with overall agreements of 67% (95% CI: 63, 71), 63% (95% CI: 60, 65) and 67% (95% CI: 63, 70), respectively. Comparing only normal vs the combined groups of abnormal and not evaluable capillaries did increase the kappa: 0.51 (95% CI: 0.37 ,: 0.65), 0.53 (95% CI: 0.49, 0.58) and 0.55 (95% CI: 0.49, 0.62). On the condition that the capillaries were classifiable, the mean kappa was 0.62 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.74) for expert raters (n = 65), 0.76 (95% CI: 0.69, 0.83) for attendees (n = 20) and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.89) for novices (n = 44).CONCLUSION: This multicentre, international study showed moderate reliability of simple capillaroscopic definitions for describing morphology of capillaries by rheumatologists with varying levels of expertise. Novices were capable of distinguishing normal from abnormal capillaries by means of a 1-h training session. In future studies, the class not evaluable may be obsolete.",
keywords = "Capillaries, Education, Medical, Continuing, Humans, Microcirculation, Microscopic Angioscopy, Nails, Observer Variation, Pilot Projects, Reproducibility of Results, Rheumatic Diseases, Rheumatology, Terminology as Topic, Video Recording",
author = "Vanessa Smith and Sam Beeckman and Herrick, {Ariane L} and Saskia Decuman and Ellen Deschepper and {De Keyser}, Filip and Oliver Distler and Ivan Foeldvari and Francesca Ingegnoli and Ulf M{\"u}ller-Ladner and Valeria Riccieri and Gabriela Riemekasten and Alberto Sulli and Alexandre Voskuyl and Maurizio Cutolo and {EULAR study group on microcirculation} and Yora Mostmans",
note = "{\textcopyright} The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.",
year = "2016",
doi = "10.1093/rheumatology/kev441",
language = "English",
volume = "55",
pages = "883--890",
journal = "Rheumatology (Oxford, England) ",
issn = "1462-0324",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "5",
}