Conventional versus Rosemont endoscopic ultrasound criteria for chronic pancreatitis: interobserver agreement in same day back-to-back procedures

Abstract

Background and study aims: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a commonly used and fairly sensitive method of assessing changes of chronic pancreatitis (CP) when routine noninvasive imaging has not shown overt features of CP. The aim of this study is to evaluate the interobserver agreement (IOA) for the classic (MSC) and the Rosemont (RC) criteria for the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis on the basis of clinical practice.

Patients and methods: Two experienced endosonographers evaluated on the same day patients referred for EUS in a blinded fashion. Data from the sonographic criteria of both MSC and RC were collected. Agreement was calculated using k statistics.

Results: A total of 69 patients were evaluated. The study population included mainly patients without pancreatic diseases, resulting in a low number of sonographic findings. Agreement for the final diagnosis was moderate for both classification systems of chronic pancreatitis (k = 0.53 for conventional and k = 0.46 for Rosemont).

Conclusions: The IOA of EUS in the diagnosis of CP is moderate. The concordance values obtained in clinical practice are similar to those obtained in multicenter studies. The RC does not seem to improve the IOA of MSC.