CLINICAL SCIENCE

Interobserver and intraobserver variability of measurements of uveal melanomas using standardised echography

C Haritoglou¹, A S Neubauer¹, H Herzum¹, W R Freeman² and A J Mueller¹

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
² UCSD Shiley Eye Center, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Christos Haritoglou, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Mathildenstrasse 8, 80336 Muenchen, Germany;
Christos.Haritoglou{at}ak-i.med.uni-muenchen.de

Aim: To report on the intraindividual and interindividual variability of tumour size (height and base diameter) measurements using standardised echography in a masked prospective study.

Methods: 20 consecutive eyes of 20 patients were examined on four different visits by three experienced examiners using standardised echography. As common in standardised echography, tumour height was evaluated with A-scan technique, while transverse and longitudinal base diameter were calculated with B-scan.

Results: Tumour height measurements using A-scan were more accurate than base diameter measurements using B-scan. The standard deviation for tumour height over all visits/measurements was 0.18 mm (A-scan), 0.79 mm for transverse, and 0.69 mm for longitudinal base diameters (B-scan). The interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was much higher for tumour height measurements with A-scan (0.7735 for three examiners on one visit) than for transverse (0.6563) or longitudinal (0.4522) base diameter measurements with B-scan techniques.

Conclusions: A-scan techniques for tumour height measurements provide very reproducible results with little intraindividual and interobserver variability. As B-scan techniques for tumour base evaluation are less accurate they should be used for topographic and morphological examinations.

Keywords: uveal melanomas; echography; observer variability

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