Interreader Reliability and Clinical Validity of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Grading System for Cervical Foraminal Stenosis

This study also assessed the correlations between radiologic and clinical findings. Material and Methods: A total of 289 patients (men:women = 155:134, mean age = 50 years) who underwent oblique sagittal MRI of the cervical spine at our hospital were included. According to the MR grading system suggested by Park et al (Br J Radiol 2013;86:20120515), 2 radiologists, 2 trainees, and 2 clinicians measured CNFS grade at the most narrow point. A neurosurgeon assessed the associated clinical manifestations. κ statistics were used to analyze the interreader agreement among the radiologists and clinicians. The clinical correlations between grade and positive clinical manifestations were assessed with R using nonparametric correlation analysis (Spearman correlation). Results: The overall interreader agreements between radiologists, between trainees, between clinicians, and between radiologists and clinicians were almost perfect (κ = 0.80–0.96). There were moderate correlations between grade and clinical manifestations in each group (R = 0.562–0.669). There were moderate to relatively high correlations between grade and neurologic manifestations based on cervical level (R = 0.570–0.715) (all P
Source: Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography - Category: Radiology Tags: Neuroradiology Source Type: research