INTEROBSERVER AGREEMENT IN ASSESSING PLAIN RADIOGRAPHS OF MAXILLARY SINUS

Interrater agreement of six observers in interpreting maxillary sinus plain X-ray films was assessed. Patients aged 1-15 years old were enro lled and X-rays in the Caldwell and Waters's views were requested to c onfirm diagnosis of sinusitis or after antimicrobial therapy for a pre -existing sinusitis. One-hundred and one pairs of maxillary sinus radi ographs from 101 patients were submitted to an independent and blind i nterpretation by three radiologists and three pediatricians. Each maxi llary sinus was separately analyzed. Kappa statistic was used to measu re interobserver agreement. A fair degree of agreement among the six r aters was found on analyzing these films: 0.39 (95% CI, 0.36-0.41) for the right maxillary sinus and 0.37 (95% CI, 0.34-0.39) for the left o ne. These results stress literature data on the limits of plain radiog raphs for diagnosing maxillary sinusitis. The necessity of knowing the clinical findings while interpreting the exams also was depicted. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.