Study on Reliability of Interpretation and Reproducibility of a Pulse Analyser

Park, Seung-chan; Lee, Ji-hye; Lee, Hye-yoon; Cho, Min-kyoung; Kim, Do-hyung; Kim, So-yeon; Choi, Jun-yong; Han, Chang-woo; Park, Seong-ha; Hong, Jin-woo; Lee, In; Kwon, Jung-nam

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine > Volume 34(3); 2013 > Article

Article

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine 2013;34(3): 231-239.

맥진기 판독의 신뢰도 및 파형의 재현성 연구

박승찬, 이지혜, 이혜윤, 조민경, 김도형, 김소연, 최준용, 한창우, 박성하, 홍진우, 이인, 권정남

부산대학교 한방병원 한방내과

Study on Reliability of Interpretation and Reproducibility of a Pulse Analyser

Seung-chan Park, Ji-hye Lee, Hye-yoon Lee, Min-kyoung Cho, Do-hyung Kim, So-yeon Kim, Jun-yong Choi, Chang-woo Han, Seong-ha Park, Jin-woo Hong, In Lee, Jung-nam Kwon

Dept. of Korean Internal Medicine, Pu-San National University Korean Medicine Hospital

Correspondence

Jung-nam Kwon ,Tel: 055-360-5956, Email: jnkwon@pusan.ac.kr

Published online: September 30, 2013.

ABSTRACT

Objectives:
This study was performed to evaluate inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of interpretation and reproducibility of a pulse analyser (MAXMAC27-Plus).

Methods :
38 of 40 volunteers completed the pulse analysis consecutively. Three Korean medical doctors who had at least 2 years of clinical experience interpreted the pulse waves for 3 aspects of size, depth and shape, then inter-rater reliability and crude agreement was obtained. Reinterpretation was done 2 weeks later and intra-rater reliability and crude agreement was obtained. Intra-rater reliability and crude agreement between 1st and 2nd measurement was calculated. Cohen's weighted kappa for size, Cohen's kappa for depth and shape were used as statistical analysis.

Results:
Inter-rater reliability of size, depth and shape among 3 raters was 0.598, 0.604, and 0.312, respectively, showing moderate to substantial agreement. Average intra-rater reliability between 1st and 2nd interpretation of size, depth and shape was 0.806, 0.705, and 0.638, respectively, showing substantial to almost perfect agreement. However, intra-rater reliability between consecutive measurements of size, depth and shape was 0.221, 0.121, and 0.194, respectively, which showed only poor to fair agreement.

Conclusions:
Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of one pulse wave showed relatively high concordance. Training by a clinical expert may effect better concordance among raters. Test-retest reliability showed poor agreement. Improvement of measurement technique and device performance will be needed.

Key words: pulse analyser, inter-rater reliability, intra-rater reliability, reproducibility