Interexaminer reproducibility for periodontal findings using conventional periapical radiography

Abstract

Introduction: periodontal disease affects more than 50% of the Colombian population being considered as one of the main causes of oral morbidity. Diagnostic tests that could evaluate its extension and severity are important since we can account then for reliable tools to quantify the disease severity. Objetive: To estimate the interrater reliability for the detection of radiographic fndings in chronic periodontitis patients using conventional periapical radiography. Methods: It was performed a diagnostic test study including patients diagnosed with untreated localized chronic periodontitis including the worst prognosis tooth and performing a single conventional radiography using parallelism technique. We assigned a code for each radiograph and two independent and blinded assessors performed radiographic measurements for the following fndings: lamina dura, presence of bone defects and defect type. Agreement evaluation was performed through Cohen’s Kappa statistic. Results: We evaluated 125 radiographs. Average age was 38,8±9,9 years from whose 61,6 % were female patients. Reproducibility for lamina dura was 0,08 (95% CI: -0,04 – 0,21); bone defects 1,00 (95% CI: 1,00 – 1,00) and type of bone defects 0,31 (95% CI: 0,29 – 0,38). Conclusions: reliability for lamina dura assessment was considered null, for bone defects almost perfect while for type of bone defect acceptable. For some fndings it is necessary accurate assessments, which could refect higher agreement due to the importance of diagnostic and treatment plan establishment.