Comparison of Kristjansson Respiratory Score and Wang Respiratory Score in infants with bronchiolitis in a hospital emergency department.
Frederico Ramos Pinto, Liane Correia-Costa, Inês Azevedo
PMID 33005078WHAT IT FOUND
The Kristjansson Respiratory Score showed better agreement between a physician and a physiotherapist than the Wang score when assessing infant bronchiolitis in an emergency department.
Both scores correlated only fairly with oxygen saturation, so SpO2 alone should not determine severity.
Key findings
01Inter-rater reliability between a physician and a physiotherapist was good for the Kristjansson Respiratory Score (ICC 0.78) and moderate for the Wang Respiratory Score (ICC 0.69).
02Both respiratory scores showed only a fair correlation with oxygen saturation levels upon admission and discharge.
03Respiratory rate was the most reliable individual clinical sign for determining respiratory distress in both scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only one physiotherapist and a group of 24 physicians, an unbalanced distribution that may have overestimated the inter-rater reliability results. The sample size of 60 infants limited the ability to assess other important properties of the scores, such as their construct validity regarding admission or discharge decisions. Physicians received only a brief explanation of the scores before the study, which may have contributed to inconsistencies in subjective items like general condition.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest, and there was no financial support for the study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these scores are validated tools for predicting admission or discharge. The study only evaluated agreement between observers, and the authors noted that the unbalanced number of physicians and physiotherapists may have led to an overestimation of the reliability results.