title: Interobserver reliability of visual interpretation of electroencephalograms in children with newly diagnosed seizures.
abstract: The reliability of visual interpretation of electroencephalograms (EEG) is of great importance in assessing the value of this diagnostic tool. We prospectively obtained 50 standard EEGs and 61 EEGs after partial sleep deprivation from 93 children (56 males, 37 females) with a mean age of 6 years 10 months (SE 5 mo; range 4 mo-15 y 7 mo) with one or more newly diagnosed, unprovoked seizures. Two clinical neurophysiologists independently classified the background pattern and the presence of epileptiform discharges or focal non-epileptiform abnormalities of each EEG. The agreement was substantial for the interpretation of the EEG as normal or abnormal (kappa 0.66), almost perfect for the presence of epileptiform discharges (kappa 0.83), substantial for the occurrence of an abnormal background pattern (kappa 0.73), and moderate for the presence of focal non-epileptiform discharges (kappa 0.54). In conclusion, the reliability of the visual interpretation of EEGs in children is almost perfect as regards the presence of epileptiform abnormalities, and moderate to substantial for the presence of other abnormalities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, St Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital, Tilburg, The Netherlands. H.Stroink@Elisabeth.nl
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stroink
authors.forename: Robbert-Jan
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Schimsheimer
authors.forename: Al W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: de Weerd
authors.forename: Ada T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Geerts
authors.forename: Willem F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Arts
authors.forename: Els A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.forename: Oebele F
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Brouwer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boudewijn Peters
authors.forename: Cees A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: van Donselaar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012640:Seizures / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception