Mayo and NINDS scales for assessment of tendon reflexes: between observer agreement and implications for communication
- aDepartment of Neurology, bDepartment of Clinical Epidemiology, Utrecht University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Professor J van Gijn, University Department of Neurology, Academic Hospital, Heidelberglaan 100, PO box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands. Telephone 0031 30 2507975; fax 0031 30 2542100.
- Received 2 December 1996
- Revised 23 May 1997
- Accepted 22 August 1997
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the between observer reliability of two standard notation scales for grading tendon reflexes, The Mayo Clinic scale and the NINDS scale. In a university department of neurology two or three physicians judged the biceps, triceps, knee, and ankle tendon reflexes in two groups of 50 patients using either scale. The interobserver agreement was assessed by means of κ statistics. The agreement among doctors was never better than “fair” for both scales (highest κ value 0.35). A verbal description rather than a codified scale may improve communication among doctors.
