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. 2011 Feb 11;6(2):e16535.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016535.

Intra-examiner and inter-examiner reproducibility of paraspinal thermography

Matthew McCoy  1 , Ismay Campbell, Pamela Stone, Curtis Fedorchuk, Sameera Wijayawardana, Kirk Easley
Affiliations

Intra-examiner and inter-examiner reproducibility of paraspinal thermography

Matthew McCoy et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the intra-examiner and inter-examiner reproducibility of paraspinal thermography using an infrared scanner.

Materials and methods: The thermal functions of a commercially available infrared scanner (Insight Subluxation Station®) were evaluated for clinical reliability. Two practicing clinicians conducted the measures on 100 subjects. Intra class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs) were calculated from the collected data.

Results: Mean bilateral paraspinal skin temperature was 89.78° F and ranged from 88.77° F to 91.43° F. Intra class correlation coefficients (ICCs) for agreement and consistency ranged from 0.959 to 0.976. Concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs) ranged from 0.783 to 0.859 with tight confidence intervals indicating robust estimates of these quantities.

Conclusion: This study revealed excellent intra-examiner and inter-examiner reproducibility of paraspinal thermography using a commercially available unit.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Dr. McCoy is a consultant for the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance which manufactures the device used in this study. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Scatter Plot: Intra-examiner agreement (Examiner A).
Figure 1 presents overall scatter of the data corresponding to the intra – examiner agreement for Examiner A. The plot shows a good distribution of data points around the 45° degree line, indicating a high degree of correlation between Examiner A's repeat measurements.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Scatter Plot: Intra-examiner agreement (Examiner B).
Figure 2 presents overall scatter of the data corresponding to the intra – examiner agreement for Examiner B. The plot shows a good distribution of data points around the 45° degree line, indicating a high degree of correlation between Examiner B's repeat measurements.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Scatter Plot: Inter-examiner agreement (Examiner A vs. Examiner B).
Figure 3 presents overall scatter of the data corresponding to the inter – examiner agreement for both examiners. The plot shows a good distribution of data points around the 45° degree line, indicating a high degree of correlation between the measurements of the two examiners.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Bland-Altman Plot for Examiner A (Trial 1) vs. Examiner A (Trial 2).
Figure 4 corresponds to intra – examiner agreement and shows that only 5.4% of all the readings done by Examiner A fell outside the 95% agreement limits.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Bland-Altman Plot for Examiner B (Trial 1) vs. Examiner B (Trial 2).
Figure 5 corresponds to intra – examiner agreement and shows that only 4.6% of Examiner B's readings fell outside the 95% agreement limits.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Bland-Altman Plot for Examiner A vs. Examiner B.
Figure 6 shows the Bland-Altman plot corresponding to the inter–examiner agreement between the two examiners. On the horizontal axis is the average of the 1st and 2nd temperature readings and on the vertical axis, the difference between the measurements of the two examiners. The plot shows the 95% agreement limits between the measurements of the two examiners with only 5.6% of readings falling outside the 95% agreement limits.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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