Observer variability in the histologic assessment of oral premalignant lesions

A Karabulut; J Reibel; M H Therkildsen; F Praetorius; H W Nielsen; Erik Dabelsteen

Observer variability in the histologic assessment of oral premalignant lesions

A Karabulut, J Reibel, M H Therkildsen, F Praetorius, H W Nielsen, Erik Dabelsteen

182 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Histopathologic examination of oral leukoplakias has a major impact on the assessment of prognosis and treatment planning. We investigated the extent of agreement in grading epithelial dysplasia between pathologists with the same or different educational backgrounds. Two general pathologists and two oral pathologists were each given 100 sections of oral leukoplakia to grade from no dysplasia to carcinoma in-situ. The interobserver agreement rates were in the range of 49% to 69%. The calculated kappa values were in the range of 27% to 45%, showing poor to moderate agreement between the pathologists. When comparing the kappa values between the two pairs of pathologists with the same education, these values did not diverge from the general level of kappa values, indicating that the interobserver variability was due to individual differences rather than to educational background.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine
Volume	24
Issue number	5
Pages (from-to)	198-200
Number of pages	3
ISSN	0904-2512
Publication status	Published - 1995

Keywords

Clinical Competence
Diagnosis, Oral
Humans
Leukoplakia, Oral
Observer Variation
Pathology, Oral

Cite this

@article{92a3988f59a24015ad8a5cded3e1c8bf,

title = "Observer variability in the histologic assessment of oral premalignant lesions",

abstract = "Histopathologic examination of oral leukoplakias has a major impact on the assessment of prognosis and treatment planning. We investigated the extent of agreement in grading epithelial dysplasia between pathologists with the same or different educational backgrounds. Two general pathologists and two oral pathologists were each given 100 sections of oral leukoplakia to grade from no dysplasia to carcinoma in-situ. The interobserver agreement rates were in the range of 49% to 69%. The calculated kappa values were in the range of 27% to 45%, showing poor to moderate agreement between the pathologists. When comparing the kappa values between the two pairs of pathologists with the same education, these values did not diverge from the general level of kappa values, indicating that the interobserver variability was due to individual differences rather than to educational background.",

keywords = "Clinical Competence, Diagnosis, Oral, Humans, Leukoplakia, Oral, Observer Variation, Pathology, Oral",

author = "A Karabulut and J Reibel and Therkildsen, {M H} and F Praetorius and Nielsen, {H W} and Erik Dabelsteen",

year = "1995",

language = "English",

volume = "24",

pages = "198--200",

journal = "Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine",

issn = "0904-2512",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Observer variability in the histologic assessment of oral premalignant lesions

AU - Karabulut, A

AU - Reibel, J

AU - Therkildsen, M H

AU - Praetorius, F

AU - Nielsen, H W

AU - Dabelsteen, Erik

PY - 1995

Y1 - 1995

N2 - Histopathologic examination of oral leukoplakias has a major impact on the assessment of prognosis and treatment planning. We investigated the extent of agreement in grading epithelial dysplasia between pathologists with the same or different educational backgrounds. Two general pathologists and two oral pathologists were each given 100 sections of oral leukoplakia to grade from no dysplasia to carcinoma in-situ. The interobserver agreement rates were in the range of 49% to 69%. The calculated kappa values were in the range of 27% to 45%, showing poor to moderate agreement between the pathologists. When comparing the kappa values between the two pairs of pathologists with the same education, these values did not diverge from the general level of kappa values, indicating that the interobserver variability was due to individual differences rather than to educational background.

AB - Histopathologic examination of oral leukoplakias has a major impact on the assessment of prognosis and treatment planning. We investigated the extent of agreement in grading epithelial dysplasia between pathologists with the same or different educational backgrounds. Two general pathologists and two oral pathologists were each given 100 sections of oral leukoplakia to grade from no dysplasia to carcinoma in-situ. The interobserver agreement rates were in the range of 49% to 69%. The calculated kappa values were in the range of 27% to 45%, showing poor to moderate agreement between the pathologists. When comparing the kappa values between the two pairs of pathologists with the same education, these values did not diverge from the general level of kappa values, indicating that the interobserver variability was due to individual differences rather than to educational background.

KW - Clinical Competence

KW - Diagnosis, Oral

KW - Humans

KW - Leukoplakia, Oral

KW - Observer Variation

KW - Pathology, Oral

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 7616457

SN - 0904-2512

VL - 24

SP - 198

EP - 200

JO - Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine

JF - Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine

IS - 5

ER -

Observer variability in the histologic assessment of oral premalignant lesions

Abstract

Keywords

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