Reliability Nash and Moe’s Grades in Patients With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate the inter and intra-observer reliability of Nash and Moe’s grades, used to assess patients diagnosed with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). Methodology: Forty-seven representative x-rays of patients with AIS were randomly selected to evaluate the apical vertebral rotation (AVR) using Nash and Moe’s grades. The evaluation of the AVR was made independently in two distinct moments by two observers. The inclusion criteria in the study were a patient diagnosed with AIS and an orthostasis radiography with a good-quality image. An agreement study between the evaluations and the inter and intraobserver’s reliability was determined using Kappa’s statistics with a confidence interval of 95%. Results: The interobservers’ Kappa’s value in the first evaluation was 0,44 (CI 95%; 0,22-0,66) and 0,37 (CI 95%; 0,17-0,56) in the second. In the intraobservers’ evaluations, the Kappa’s value for examiner 1 was 0,61 (CI 95%; 0,40-0,81) and 0,46 (CI 95%; 0,22-0,70) for examiner 2. Conclusion: This study’s results demonstrated that Nash and Moe’s grades are unreliable for evaluating vertebral rotation in patients with AIS. Level of Evidence III; A Cross-Sectional Study.