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14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT)

17.06. - 21.06.2019, Berlin

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The reliability of sonographic measurement of early palmar Dupuytren nodules

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  • presenting/speaker Sanne Molenkamp - University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Plastic Surgery, HPC: BB81, Groningen, Netherlands
  • Roel Van Straalen - University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Plastic Surgery, HPC: BB81, Groningen, Netherlands
  • Paul M. N. Werker - University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Plastic Surgery, HPC: BB81, Groningen, Netherlands
  • Dieuwke C. Broekstra - University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Plastic Surgery, HPC: BB81, Groningen, Netherlands

International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy. 14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT). Berlin, 17.-21.06.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2020. DocIFSSH19-820

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh0552, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh05526

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Molenkamp et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives/Interrogation: In the future, it is expected that treatment of Dupuytren disease (DD) will aim at disease control or regression of early disease. Ultrasound might be an accurate method to measure the outcome of such treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of sonographic measurement of palmar nodules.

Methods: Fifty patients with early disease nodules were assessed with ultrasound by two observers. The first observer measured the nodules twice. Four different aspects were measured in the transverse and sagittal plane: width, depth, circumference and cross-sectional area. The intra- and inter-observer reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC)) and the standard error of measurement (SEM) were calculated for each aspect.

Results and Conclusions: The ICCs for the intra-observer reliability were good(ICC: 0.724 [0.562-0.833] to 0.886 [0.808-0.934]), except for width in the sagittal plane (ICC: 0.671 [0.484-0.799]). The ICCs for the inter-observer reliability were lower (ICC: 0.385 [0.126-0.596] to 0.757 [0.538-0.869]). Overall the intra-observer ICCs of area were highest (transverse: 0.847 [0.744-0.893] and sagittal 0.886 [0.808-0.934]). The SEM of area was 6.1 mm2 in the transverse and 8.02 mm2 in the sagittal plane.

Sonographic follow-up of Dupuytren nodules is reliable when performed by a single observer. The measurement of area is most reliable and is therefore recommended for future studies. However, not all detected changes can be interpreted as progression or regression, since measurements of both a single and different observers have a certain dispersion. A change beyond 6.1 and 8.02 mm2 in the transverse and sagittal plane respectively can be considered as regression or progression.