The Bath metrology index as assessed by a trained and an untrained rater in patients with spondylarthropathy: a study of intra- and inter-rater agreements

• Published in: Clinical rheumatology 2009, Vol.28 (1), p.35-40
• Main Authors: Madsen, O. R., Hansen, L. B., Rytter, A., Suetta, C., Egsmose, C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Education, Nursing; Female; Health Personnel - education; Health Personnel - standards; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nurses; Observer Variation; Original Article; Physical Therapy Specialty - education; Physical Therapy Specialty - standards; Predictive Value of Tests; Range of Motion, Articular; Reproducibility of Results; Rheumatology; Severity of Illness Index; Spondylitis, Ankylosing - diagnosis; Spondylitis, Ankylosing - physiopathology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0770-3198; 1434-9949
• DOI: 10.1007/s10067-008-0978-x

The Bath ankylosing spondylitis metrology index (BASMI; range 0–10) has gained widespread use in daily clinical practice as an objective measure of spinal stiffness not only in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) but also in patients with other spondylarthropathies (Sp A ). We examined intra-rater and inter-rater reproducibility of BASMI scoring in 30 Danish patients with Sp A (median age 40 years, range 22–56 years) fulfilling the European Spondylarthropathy Study Group criteria, 25 of them satisfying the modified New York Criteria for AS. Measurements were performed twice on two different days (median interval 7 days, range 4–11) by a trained physiotherapist (PT) and by an untrained nurse who had undergone a single 1-h training session with the PT. The median BASMI score obtained by the PT on the two test days was 3.5 (range 1–8) and 3.0 (range 1–8), respectively (NS). Test–retest BASMI scores from the PT were significantly correlated ( r s  = 0.95, p