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Medical, surgical specialties have moderate agreement on metastatic spine instability
Investigators of this study found there was moderate and almost perfect agreement on the assessment of metastatic spine instability with the Spine Instability Neoplastic Score.
Researchers prospectively identified 90 patients with biopsy-proven spinal metastases. Eighty-three specialists from 44 hospitals in 14 Spanish regions provided the clinical data and imaging. Investigators evaluated the Spine Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS) twice within a 6-week time period and used intraclass correlation coefficient to determine the SINS score agreement. Clinician specialty and experience level, as well as the hospital category, were used to perform subgroup analyses. Investigators used Fleiss kappa statistics to assess the agreement on the location of the most affected vertebral level and for SINS category agreement.
There was “almost perfect” intra- and interobserver agreement on location of the most affected levels, based on the results. Investigators noted the SINS score had “excellent” intraobserver agreement; however, the interobserver agreement was “moderate.” The intraobserver and intraobserver agreement for the SINS category was “substantial” and “moderate,” respectively. The agreement with the tumor board classification overall was “substantial,” according to the findings.
Specialties, years of experience and hospital categories also yielded similar results. ‒ by Monica Jaramillo
Disclosures: The study was supported by the Kovacs Foundation.