• Eur Spine J · Mar 2022

    Validity and interobserver agreement of a new radiographic grading system for intervertebral disc degeneration: Part III. Thoracic spine.

    • Christian Liebsch, Youping Tao, Annette Kienle, and Hans-Joachim Wilke.
    • Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics, Trauma Research Centre Ulm, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
    • Eur Spine J. 2022 Mar 1; 31 (3): 726-734.

    PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess the validity and objectivity of a new quantitative radiographic grading system for thoracic intervertebral disc degeneration.MethodsThe new grading system involves the measurement variables "Height loss" and "Osteophyte formation", which are determined from lateral radiographs, resulting in the "Overall degree of degeneration" on a four-point scale from 0 (no degeneration) to 3 (severe degeneration). Validation was performed by comparing the radiographic degrees of degeneration of 54 human intervertebral discs to the respective macroscopic degrees, which were defined as the "real" degrees of degeneration. Interobserver agreement was examined using radiographs of 135 human thoracic intervertebral discs. Agreement was quantified by means of quadratically weighted Kappa coefficients with 95% confidence limits (CL).ResultsValidation revealed almost perfect agreement between the radiographic and the macroscopic overall degrees of degeneration (Kappa 0.968, CL 0.944-0.991), while the macroscopic grades tended to be underestimated in low degeneration grades. Radiographic grading of two independent observers also exhibited almost perfect agreement (Kappa 0.883, CL 0.824-0.941) as well as tendencies towards rater-dependent differences in low degeneration grades.ConclusionThe new quantitative radiographic grading scheme represents a valid, reliable, and almost objective method for assessing the degree of degeneration of individual thoracic intervertebral discs. Potential effects of interindividual variations and the radiographic superimposition of anatomical structures represent a limitation of this method should be taken into account when using the grading system for clinical and experimental purposes, especially with regard to specific morphological as well as patient- and donor-specific characteristics.© 2021. The Author(s).

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…