Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, 601 Vernon L Tharp Street, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, 601 Vernon L Tharp Street, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
Vet J. 2019 Oct;252:105375. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2019.105375. Epub 2019 Sep 4.
Electronic von Frey Aesthesiometry (VFA) has been previously reported as a useful method of mechanical quantitative sensory testing (QST) for evaluating neuropathic pain in dogs. Intraobserver agreement has been shown to be good to excellent; however, interobserver agreement has not been evaluated and is vital to the use of this technique in multicenter veterinary clinical trials in neuropathic pain. The goal of this study was to evaluate the interobserver agreement of sensory thresholds obtained using electronic VFA in a group of normal small breed dogs. Twenty healthy dogs (<20 kg) were recruited from the general practice population at the Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center. Three clinically experienced yet QST novice evaluators used an electronic von Frey device to measure mechanical sensory threshold (ST) after a standardised training session conducted by an expert evaluator. Each dog was assessed by all three evaluators on the same day with both evaluator and limb test order randomised and testing sessions separated by 5 min. Mean ST values were averaged for all four limbs to produce a single value per dog for comparison between evaluators. Agreement between evaluators was determined using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC; two-way model for consistency, single measures). ICC across all three evaluators was 0.48, indicating moderate agreement. Moderate interobserver agreement is not sufficient to support the use of this technique in multi-center clinical trials, and our results underscore the importance of using a single evaluator for this QST technique until better agreement can be demonstrated.
电子 von Frey 触觉测定法（VFA）已被报道为评估犬类神经性疼痛的机械定量感觉测试（QST）的一种有用方法。已证明观察者内一致性良好至优秀；然而，尚未评估观察者间一致性，而这对于在神经性疼痛的多中心兽医临床试验中使用该技术至关重要。本研究的目的是评估电子 VFA 获得的感觉阈值在一组正常小型犬中的观察者间一致性。从俄亥俄州立大学兽医医疗中心的普通实践人群中招募了 20 只健康犬（<20kg）。在由专家评估员进行的标准化培训课程后，三位具有临床经验但 QST 新手的评估员使用电子 von Frey 设备测量机械感觉阈值（ST）。每只狗均由所有三位评估员在同一天进行评估，评估员和肢体测试顺序随机，测试间隔 5 分钟。所有四肢的平均 ST 值被平均化，以产生每只狗的单个值，以便在评估员之间进行比较。评估员之间的一致性使用组内相关系数（ICC；一致性的双向模型，单测量）来确定。所有三位评估员的 ICC 为 0.48，表明存在中度一致性。中度观察者间一致性不足以支持在多中心临床试验中使用该技术，我们的结果强调在能够证明更好的一致性之前，使用单个评估员进行这种 QST 技术的重要性。
