01823nas a2200289   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001100055653001200066653002200078653003900100653002500139653003100164100001500195700001500210700001400225700001400239700001200253700001600265245008900281856005900370300001000429490000700439050003200446520104100478022001401519       1995                            d  c1995 Sep10aHumans10aleprosy10aPeripheral nerves10aPeripheral Nervous System Diseases10aPhysical Examination10aReproducibility of Results1 aKolappan C1 aSelvaraj R1 aKhudoos A1 aGowda B N1 aDatta M1 aPrabhakar R00aRepeatability of nerve thickness assessment in the clinical examination for leprosy.  uhttp://leprev.ilsl.br/pdfs/1995/v66n3/pdf/v66n3a06.pdf  a224-80 v66  aInfolep Library - available3 a<p>The assessment of the thickness of the superficial peripheral nerve trunks to document nerve involvement is an important aspect of clinical examination in case finding for leprosy, and is usually done by trained paramedical workers (PMWs). This assessment is subject to variability and has implications on the outcome of the survey. The present study proposes to quantify this variability. In this study, 242 individuals, consisting of 50 neuritic cases, 143 nonneuritic cases of leprosy and 49 normal controls, selected from the records of the trial of BCG prophylaxis in leprosy in South India, were examined by a doctor and paramedical workers. Repeatability of nerve thickness assessment for ulnar and popliteal nerves between the medical officer (MO) and the PMWs was quantified using Kappa statistics. The Kappa values for repeatability between the MO and the PMWs ranged from 0.45 to 0.54 and 0.52 to 0.69 for ulnar and popliteal nerves, respectively. The implications of the variability in nerve assessment are discussed.</p>  a0305-7518