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Validation of the Italian version of the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System

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Abstract

The Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (SFGS) is one of the most employed scales to assess the severity of facial palsy. The aim of our study was to produce an Italian version of the SFGS and of its explanatory criteria, and to test their measurement properties when employed by Italian physicians. A multidisciplinary committee translated and adapted the scale and its criteria into Italian. Six native Italian physicians, four of whom experienced in facial palsy and two novices, rated independently 29 videos of facial palsy patients twice. Internal consistency, agreement and repeatability were evaluated. The Italian version of the SFGS showed a high degree of internal consistency with a Cronbach’s α of 0.91. The test–retest reliability was high for both inter-rater and intra-rater measures with an ICC of 0.96 and 0.98, respectively. The scores given by the novice physicians were comparable with the scores given by the expert physicians. Our study suggests that the Italian version of the SFGS has excellent internal consistency and reproducibility, comparable to the original scale. Our study confirms in an independent case record the high measurement properties of SFGS and provides the first validated Italian scale for the assessment of facial palsy.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Charlotte Buckmaster for her linguistic expertise. C. Pavese is partially supported by an investigator fellowship from Collegio Ghislieri, Pavia, Italy.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgical, Resuscitation, Rehabilitation and Transplant Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Chiara Pavese, Francesco Furini, Marta Abbamonte, Erica Giromini, Vittorio Sala, Miriam Cecini & Elena Dalla Toffola

  2. Biometric Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy

    Carmine Tinelli & Annalisa De Silvestri

  3. Rehabilitation Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Piazzale Golgi 19, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Elena Dalla Toffola

Authors
  1. Chiara Pavese
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  2. Carmine Tinelli
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  3. Francesco Furini
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  4. Marta Abbamonte
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  5. Erica Giromini
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  6. Vittorio Sala
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  7. Annalisa De Silvestri
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  8. Miriam Cecini
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  9. Elena Dalla Toffola
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elena Dalla Toffola.

Electronic supplementary material

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Online Resource: The SFGS scores for 29 videos rated by 6 physicians using the Italian version of the scale.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 159 kb)

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Pavese, C., Tinelli, C., Furini, F. et al. Validation of the Italian version of the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System. Neurol Sci 34, 457–463 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-012-1025-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-012-1025-x

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