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Intra- and inter-rater reliability of post-void residual bladder volume with ultrasound
Juliana Falcão Padilha1, Jordana Barbosa da Silva2, Enio Júnior Seidel3,4
1Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Alameda das Crisandálias, n° 539, District: Cidade Jardim, São Carlos, SP, 13566-570, Brazil. jufpadilha@gmail.com.
Introduction And Hypothesis:
The purpose of the present study was to test the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the measurement of post-void residual bladder volume using ultrasound.
Methods:
Two evaluators performed three measurements of the height, width, and length of the empty bladder using ultrasound. The voiding residual volume was calculated using the equation: volume = length × width × height × 0.52. Intraclass correlations (ICC) were calculated considering: ICC ≥ 0.75 excellent, 0.40 ≤ ICC < 0.75 satisfactory, and ICC <0.40 poor, with a significance level of 5% and analysis of confidence intervals (95% CI).
Results:
Twenty women participated, with an average age of 27.95 ± 3.15 years. The inter-rater ICCs for height, width, and length were 0.96 (CI 0.89-0.98), 0.88 (CI 0.71-0.95), and 0.84 (CI0.60-0.94) respectively. For the intra-rater ICCs, the values were 0.97 (CI 0.95-0.99), 0.98 (CI 0.96-0.99), and 0.97 (CI 0.94-0.99) for evaluator 1 and 0.99 (CI 0.97-0.99), 0.97 (CI 0.94-0.99), and 0.95 (CI 0.90-0.98) for evaluator 2, for height, width, and length, respectively. The residual inter-test volume was 0.96 (CI 0.90-0.99) and the intra-test volume was 0.99 (CI 0.97-0.99). All analyses presented p < 0.0001.
Conclusions:
The intra- and inter-rater reliability for both the post-void residual volume and measurement of the bladder dimensions showed excellent agreement.
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