The 'Ermenonville' classification of observations at coronary angioscopy--evaluation of intra- and inter-observer agreement. European Working Group on Coronary Angioscopy.
A European coronary angioscopy working group has been established to create and evaluate a classification system for angioscopic observation. The 'Ermenonville' classification features items, graded in 3-5 categories, such as lumen diameter, shape of narrowing, colours of surface, atheroma, dissection, thrombus, etc. Inter- and intra-observer agreement on the interpretation of angioscopic images, using this classification system, was studied within the working group. Kappa values for chance-corrected intra-observer agreement of the diagnostic items were 0.51-0.67. The mean kappa values for inter-observer agreement were very low at 0.13-0.29. The important items, such as red thrombus and dissection were studied after recoding as either present or absent. These items proved to have a good intra-observer agreement, and an acceptable inter-observer agreement after recoding. Other angioscopic diagnoses should be made with caution. Multicentre angioscopy studies should make use of an angioscopy core laboratory. A set of definitions for coronary angioscopy is proposed, and this working group will re-evaluate observer agreements using these definitions.
den Heijer
P
P
Thoraxcenter, University Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands.
Foley
D P
DP
Hillege
H L
HL
Lablanche
J M
JM
van Dijk
R B
RB
Franzen
D
D
Morice
M C
MC
Serra
A
A
de Scheerder
I K
IK
Serruys
P W
PW
D017546:Angioscopy / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015642:Radiology, Interventional