Is entheses ultrasound reliable? A reading Latin American exercise

• Published in: Clinical rheumatology 2016-05, Vol.35 (5), p.1353-1357
• Main Authors: Ventura-Ríos, L., Navarro-Compan, V, Aliste, M, Linares, M. Alva, Areny, R., Audisio, M., Bertoli, A. M., Cazenave, T., Cerón, C., Díaz, M. E., Gutiérrez, M., Hernández, C., Navarta, D. A., Pineda, C., Py, G. E., Reginato, A. M., Rosa, J., Saaibi, D. L., Sedano, O., Solano, C., Castillo-Gallego, C., Falçao, S., De Miguel, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brief Report; Clinical Competence; Enthesopathy - diagnostic imaging; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Reproducibility of Results; Rheumatology; Severity of Illness Index; Spondylarthritis - diagnostic imaging; Ultrasonography
• ISSN: 0770-3198; 1434-9949
• DOI: 10.1007/s10067-015-3007-x

The objective of this study is to evaluate inter-reader entheses ultrasound (US) reliability and the influence of the type of image or degree of sonographer experience on US reliability in patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA). Eighteen Latin American ultrasonographers with different experience took part in an US reading exercise evaluating 60 entheseal images (50 % static images and 50 % videos) from healthy controls and SpA patients. The following sonographic lesions were assessed: structure, thickness, bone proliferation/tendon calcification, erosions, bursitis, and Doppler signal. Another group of three experts with significant experience in entheses US read all images too. Inter-reader reliability among participants and experts was calculated by the Cohen’s kappa coefficient. Thresholds for kappa values were