Abstract
Background
The urinary tract dilation (UTD) classification system was proposed in 2014.
Objective
To evaluate the correspondence and reliability of two US grading systems for postnatal urinary tract dilatation in infants: the Society for Fetal Urology (SFU) and the UTD systems.
Materials and methods
We assessed 180 kidneys in infants younger than 1 year. Four radiologists assessed the kidneys twice using both the SFU system (grades 0 to 4) and the UTD system (grades normal, P1, P2, P3). The SFU system was re-categorized into SFU-A (grades 0, 1–2, 3, 4) and into SFU-B (grades 0–1, 2, 3, 4). The Cohen kappa statistic was used for estimating agreement of both UTD–SFU-A and UTD–SFU-B.
Results
The Cohen kappa was significantly higher between UTD and SFU-B as compared to the UTD and SFU-A (0.75 vs. 0.50, P < 0.001). Intra-observer agreement was similar for the two grading systems (SFU 0.64–0.88 vs. UTD 0.48–0.92, P = 0.050–0.885). SFU grades 2 and 3 showed fair to moderate inter-observer agreement and corresponding UTD grades P1 and P2 showed moderate to substantial agreement. The overall inter-observer agreement was significantly higher for the UTD system than for the SFU system during the first assessment (95% confidence interval [CI]: right kidney, −0.069 to −0.062; left kidney, −0.048 to −0.043).
Conclusion
Correspondence between the systems was poor using a recommended re-categorization (SFU-A). An alternative re-categorization (SFU-B) was found to be more appropriate for establishing correspondence between the systems. Both systems were reliable, with good intra- and inter-observer agreement for the assessment of infant kidneys, but the UTD system had better inter-observer agreement.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Heera Lee, medical illustrator, Medical Information & Media Center, Ajou University Medical Center, Suwon, Korea, for her help with the figures.
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Han, M., Kim, H.G., Lee, JD. et al. Conversion and reliability of two urological grading systems in infants: the Society for Fetal Urology and the urinary tract dilatation classifications system. Pediatr Radiol 47, 65–73 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-016-3721-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-016-3721-9