1. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "Assessing vasculitis in giant cell arteritis by ultrasound: results of omeract patient-based reliability exercises" ?
The aim was to test interand intrareader reliability for normal findings, halo sign, and compression sign.. A preliminary 1-day meeting was held following the International Symposium on Giant Cell Arteritis, Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Large Vessel Vasculitis in Southend, UK, in March 2016 to test the feasibility and study setting for a patient-based exercise.. The methodology and reporting of the Berlin OMERACT reliability exercise adhered to the recommendations from the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research network18 using the Guidelines for Reporting Reliability and Agreement Studies Statement19.. The head was rotated slightly toward the examiner for examining the left temporal artery and away from the examiner for examining the right temporal artery.. After a predetermined time, sonographers rotated to the next station until every sonographer examined all patients/controls.. Sonographers were blinded to the study subjects ’ diagnosis.. None of the examined patients had visibly swollen temporal arteries.. The following settings were applied for the examination of the temporal arteries ( axillary arteries ): B-mode frequency 18 MHz ( 14 MHz ), image depth 1. 5 cm ( 3 cm ), 1 focus point at 0. 5 cm ( 1. 5 cm ) below skin surface, color Doppler frequency 9 MHz ( 6 MHz ), and pulse repetition frequency 2. 5 KHz ( 3. 5 KHz ).. The examined study subjects were chosen by the convenors ( BD, WAS ), who did not participate in the reliability exercise.. WAS, being unblinded to the history and diagnosis of all study subjects and having performed > 5000 scans in suspected GCA over 23 years, examined all study subjects in addition to the other sonographers ( independent sonographer ) to decide whether arterial segments were exhibiting clear or ambivalent pathology and to store reference images and videos.. The examined study subjects were 63–76 years old ( mean age 68 yrs ).. The examined study subjects were chosen and also examined by the convenor ( WAS ), who did not participate in the reliability exercise.. Figures explaining these definitions can be found in the article describing the Delphi process in more detail14 and in another review article20.. Intrareader reliability was assessed by Cohen k. Interreader reliability was studied by calculating the mean k on all pairs ( i. e., Light k ) 21.. Recently published European League Against Rheumatism recommendations on imaging in large-vessel vasculitis suggest US as the first imaging modality particularly in patients with suspected predominantly cranial GCA13.. Further, the diagnosis had remained unchanged until the exercise.
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