The relation of conjunctival pallor to the presence of anemia.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the value of conjunctival pallor in ruling in or ruling out the presence of severe anemia (hemoglobin < or = 90 g/L) and to determine the interobserver agreement in assessing this sign.


METHODS
Patients were prospectively assessed for pallor by at least one of three observers. All observations were made without information of the patient's hemoglobin value or of another observer's assessment.


METHODS
Tertiary-care, university-affiliated teaching hospital.


METHODS
Three hundred and two medical and surgical inpatients.


RESULTS
Likelihood ratios (LRs) calculated for conjunctival pallor present, borderline, and absent were as follows: pallor present, LR 4.49 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.80, 10.99); pallor borderline, LR 1.80 (95% CI 1.18, 2.62); pallor absent, LR 0.61 (95% CI 0.44, 0.80). Kappa scores of interobserver agreement between paired observers were 0.75 and 0.54.


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of conjunctival pallor, without other information suggesting anemia, is reason enough to perform a hemoglobin determination. The absence of conjunctival pallor is not likely to be of use in ruling out severe anemia. With well-defined criteria, interobserver agreement is good to very good.
Sheth
T N
TN
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Health Administration, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Choudhry
N K
NK
Bowes
M
M
Detsky
A S
AS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003116:Color; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010167:Pallor; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve
D006454:Hemoglobins