Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35101020›Full record

ArticleBMC musculoskeletal disorders2022

The challenge of measuring spinopelvic parameters: inter-rater reliability before and after minimally invasive lumbar spondylodesis.

Marc Hohenhaus, Florian Volz, Yorn Merz, Ralf Watzlawick, Christoph Scholz, Ulrich Hubbe, Jan-Helge Klingler

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Marc HohenhausDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany. marc.hohenhaus@uniklinik-freiburg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8743-3161
Florian VolzDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
Yorn MerzDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
Ralf WatzlawickDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
Christoph ScholzDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
Ulrich HubbeDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
Jan-Helge KlinglerDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
University of Freiburg · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe common manual measurement technique of spinal sagittal alignment on X-rays is susceptible to rater-dependent variability, which has not been adequately considered in previous publications. This study investigates the effect of those variations in the characterization of patients receiving lumbar spondylodesis.

methodsGeneral alignment parameters on pre- and postoperative X-rays were evaluated by four raters in 43 prospectively sampled patients undergoing monolevel spondylodesis. The Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for each rater pair and all raters together was calculated for inter-rater reliability. For the operation-induced change of the sagittal alignment in every patient the Wilcoxon test was applied to compare for each rater separately.

resultsThe ICCs were "good" (>0.75) to "excellent" (>0.9) for all raters together and for 45 of the 48 single rater pairs (93.75%). All revealed a significant increase of the addressed segmental lordosis and disc height and no significant change for spinopelvic parameters and sagittal vertical axis from pre- to postoperative. The lumbar lordosis showed a significant increase through the operation of +2.5° (p = 0.014) and +3.7° (p = 0.015) in two raters and no difference for the other ones (+2.1°, p = 0.171; -2.2°, p = 0.522).

conclusionsThe pre- to postoperative change of lumbar lordosis revealed different significance levels for different raters, although the ICCs were formally good. Accordingly, the evaluation by only one rater would lead to different conclusions. Due to this susceptibility of alignment measurements to rater-dependent variability, the exact evaluation process should be described in every publication and the consistency of significant results be validated through multiple raters. TRIALS REGISTRATION: The trial was approved by the local ethics committee and listed at the national clinical trials register ( DRKS00004514 , date of registration: 08/11/2012).

Indexed as

LordosisSpinal FusionHumansObserver VariationRadiographyReproducibility of ResultsInter-rater reliabilityIntra-class correlation coefficientLumbar spondylodesisMinimally invasiveSagittal alignmentSagittal balanceSpine surgerySpinopelvic parameters

Identifiers

PMID35101020
PMCPMC8802499
OpenAlexW4210419214

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.