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Biomedical subjects

P M Bugge

Publications and source records attributed to P M Bugge.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Global assessment of patients--a bedside study. II. Inter-observer variation and frequency of clinical findings.

Three physicians independently assessed 201 hospital in-patients for the presence of 10 basic physical characteristics, and made an overall assessment of whether or not the patients appeared ill. There were significant differences between the physicians in the average number of observations recorded for each patient (P less than 0.001). There was a significant difference (P less than 0.05) between the physicians regarding the number of positive diagnoses of anaemia, abnormal nutritional state, breathing difficulties and the overall assessment. Inter-observer variation was estimated by a pairwise comparison of the three physicians. Overall agreement rates ranged from 0.65 for abnormal nutritional state to 0.99 for presence of pain. After adjusting for random agreement, kappa values between 0.09 (elevated body temperature) and 0.88 (consciousness impaired) were found. No tendency towards a higher level of agreement in the overall assessment than in the basic findings was observed.

Diagnosis↗
PubMed1989

Global assessment of patients--a bedside study. I: The influence of physical findings on the global assessment.

Three physicians selected ten basic physical findings for a study of diagnostic decision making in the global assessment of patients. The physicians independently examined 201 hospital in-patients for the presence of each of the findings and concluded their assessment with a global evaluation of whether the patient appeared ill. Each of the ten findings were used by at least one of the physicians in his overall assessment of the patient. All the observers considered 'looking older than age', 'trouble with breathing', 'cyanosis', and 'anaemia' important, but disagreed in their use of the remaining findings (P less than 0.01). Agreement in the global clinical assessment is an essential prerequisite to uniformity in the approach to the patient.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

A critical evaluation of the clinical diagnosis of anemia.

Three physicians independently assessed whether 180 medical or surgical inpatients were anemic. The assessments were based on inspection of skin, nail beds, and conjunctivae. The observers made a positive diagnosis with significantly different frequency. Overall agreements between pairs of observers were 0.76-0.87. Agreement on negative diagnoses was higher than agreement on positive diagnoses. The overall agreements were adjusted for chance agreement, and kappa values which ranged from 0.23-0.47 were obtained. The overall accuracy of the clinical diagnoses was determined with the blood hemoglobin concentration as the "true" standard. For the three observers, the overall accuracy ranged from 0.78-0.79, the predictive value of a positive diagnosis ranged from 0.51-0.61, the predictive value of a negative diagnosis ranged from 0.81-0.84, the sensitivity ranged from 0.27-0.44, and the specificity ranged from 0.88-0.95. For each observer, the probability of detecting anemia was estimated as a function of the blood hemoglobin concentration. Compared with the "true" diagnosis, the observers were reluctant to call a patient anemic, and even in patients with the lowest blood hemoglobin concentrations, the expected probability of detecting anemia did not exceed 0.75.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Interobserver variation in assessment of respiratory signs. Physicians' guesses as to interobserver variation.

Interobserver variation was studied for 11 respiratory signs and for the diagnostic conclusions made on the basis of these signs. Two physicians each, with and without knowledge of the patient's history, performed physical examination of the lungs in a total of 202 unselected patients from a department of internal medicine. The interobserver variation was calculated as the kappa coefficient, using a modified method that made it possible to calculate the interobserver variation for a pair of observers made up by varying physicians. No difference was demonstrated between the kappa coefficients obtained for examinations performed with and without knowledge of the history. The kappa values for the signs ranged from -0.04 to 0.58, and for the diagnoses from 0.15 to 0.68, i.e., expressed by kappa values, poor agreement. In a questionnaire study we asked a number of physicians from departments of internal medicine to guess the size of the interobserver variation for the 11 respiratory signs examined. A total of 47 physicians (90%) returned the questionnaire and the answers showed that the physicians markedly underestimated the interobserver variation.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1982

Does the patient appear acutely or chronically ill? An interobserver study of global assessments of hospital patients.

The general appearance of 201 patients was assessed by a team of observers. Each patient was seen by two experienced physicians, two junior physicians and two medical students who stated whether the patients did not appear ill or whether the patient appeared acutely or chronically ill. The interobserver variation was considerable and the kappa-values ranged from around 0 to 0.75. The level of agreement did not seem to depend on the clinical experience of the observers. One experienced clinician assessed the patients differently from the others.

Acute Disease↗