Güldehan Atış1, Fatih Göktay1, Zeynep Altan Ferhatoğlu2, Emre Kaynak3, Ayşegül Sevim Keçici1, Şirin Yaşar1, Sema Aytekin1. 1. Department of Dermatology, Haydarpaşa Numune Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. 2. Department of Dermatology, Sultan Abdülhamid Han Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. 3. Department of Dermatology, Tunceli State Hospital, Tunceli, Turkey.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Chronic paronychia (CP) is an inflammatory disease of the nail folds. Staging of CP is important for clinicians. We developed an objective scale that evaluates each finding of CP separately in addition to evaluating the treatment process and follow-up. METHODS: A new "chronic paronychia severity index scale" was developed to enable dermatologists to examine all features of CP. A previous categorical severity scale and this new scale were used for the evaluation of CP by 6 different dermatologists. The dermatologists evaluated the nails with both scales again 20 days later using randomly ordered photographs. RESULTS: Using the previous scale, the intra-observer intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values between the first and second evaluations were 0.767, 0.860, 0.734, 0.609, 0.900, and 0.840 for the 6 dermatologists. Using the new proposed scale, the intra-observer ICC values between the first and second evaluations were 0.930, 0.931, 0.942, 0.934, 0.938, and 0.920 for the 6 dermatologists. All intra-observer ICC values were higher for the results of the proposed scale than for those of the previous scale. The inter-observer ICC values were also higher for the proposed scale than for the previous scale for the 6 dermatologists. CONCLUSION: The new scale is a standardized, more suitable, objective, and valuable method to use in clinical practice and studies on CP.
INTRODUCTION: Chronic paronychia (CP) is an inflammatory disease of the nail folds. Staging of CP is important for clinicians. We developed an objective scale that evaluates each finding of CP separately in addition to evaluating the treatment process and follow-up. METHODS: A new "chronic paronychia severity index scale" was developed to enable dermatologists to examine all features of CP. A previous categorical severity scale and this new scale were used for the evaluation of CP by 6 different dermatologists. The dermatologists evaluated the nails with both scales again 20 days later using randomly ordered photographs. RESULTS: Using the previous scale, the intra-observer intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values between the first and second evaluations were 0.767, 0.860, 0.734, 0.609, 0.900, and 0.840 for the 6 dermatologists. Using the new proposed scale, the intra-observer ICC values between the first and second evaluations were 0.930, 0.931, 0.942, 0.934, 0.938, and 0.920 for the 6 dermatologists. All intra-observer ICC values were higher for the results of the proposed scale than for those of the previous scale. The inter-observer ICC values were also higher for the proposed scale than for the previous scale for the 6 dermatologists. CONCLUSION: The new scale is a standardized, more suitable, objective, and valuable method to use in clinical practice and studies on CP.