Inter-observer agreement on the interpretation of capsule endoscopy findings based on capsule endoscopy structured terminology: a multicenter study by the Korean Gut Image Study Group.
OBJECTIVE
Capsule endoscopy (CE) is a novel investigation for the diagnosis of small-bowel disease but its interpretation is highly subjective. We studied the inter-observer agreement and accuracy of the interpretation of CE findings based on capsule endoscopy structured terminology (CEST).


METHODS
Fifty-six CE video clips were collected from eight university hospitals in South Korea and were independently reviewed by 13 gastroenterology experts and 10 trainees. All investigators recorded their findings based on CEST. To determine the accuracy of individual viewers, we defined the 'gold standard' as a joint review by four experts.


RESULTS
The 56 CE video clips included five normal cases, 19 cases of protruding lesions, 21 cases of depressed lesions, three cases of flat lesions, one case of abnormal mucosa, six cases with blood in the lumen, and one case of stenotic lumen. The overall mean accuracies for the experts and trainees were 74.3% +/- 22.6% and 61.7% +/- 25.4%, respectively. The overall accuracy for the trainee group was significantly lower than that for the expert group (P < 0.001), especially in normal, tumor, venous structure, and ulcer cases. The accuracies of the two groups varied with the CE findings. The accuracies were higher in cases with more prominent intraluminal changes (e.g. active small-bowel bleeding, ulcer, tumor, stenotic lumen). In contrast, subtle mucosal lesions, such as erosion, angioectasia, and diverticulum, had lower accuracies. The mean kappa values for the experts and trainees were 0.61 (range 0.39-0.97) and 0.46 (range 0.17-0.66), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed that there was substantial agreement between experts and moderate agreement between trainees. In order to achieve higher accuracies and better inter-observer agreement, we need not only more experience with CE but also consensus regarding CEST terminology.
Jang
Byung Ik
BI
Department of Internal Medicine, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daegu, South Korea. jbi@med.yu.ac.kr
Lee
Si Hyung
SH
Moon
Jeong-Seop
JS
Cheung
Dae Young
DY
Lee
In Seok
IS
Kim
Jin Oh
JO
Cheon
Jae Hee
JH
Park
Cheol Hee
CH
Byeon
Jeong-Sik
JS
Park
Youn Sun
YS
Shim
Ki-Nam
KN
Kim
Yong-Sik
YS
Kim
Kyung-Jo
KJ
Lee
Kwang Jae
KJ
Ryu
Ji-Kon
JK
Chang
Dong Kyung
DK
Chun
Hoon Jai
HJ
Choi
Myung-Gyu
MG
D053704:Capsule Endoscopy; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007421:Intestine, Small; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D056910:Republic of Korea