Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How consistent are dog tumor margin measurements with calipers
By Ranganathan, B et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2018·Department of Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Inter- and intra-rater reliability and agreement in determining subcutaneous tumour margins in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at how well different veterinarians could measure the edges of subcutaneous tumors in dogs, specifically soft tissue sarcomas and mast cell tumors. They found that while individual veterinarians were consistent in their measurements, there was a lot of disagreement between different vets. This inconsistency could affect how tumors are staged and treated, which is important for dogs with cancer. The researchers noted that changes in how the measuring tool was held likely contributed to these differences. More studies are needed to improve measurement accuracy for better cancer care in dogs.
People also search for: dog tumor measurement accuracy · mast cell tumor treatment in dogs · soft tissue sarcoma in dogs
Abstract
The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate agreement and reliability of calliper-based measurements of locally invasive subcutaneous malignant tumours in dogs. Four raters measured the longest diameter of 12 subcutaneous tumours (7 soft tissue sarcomas and 5 mast cell tumours) from 11 client-owned dogs during 3 randomized, blinded measurement trials, both pre- and post-sedation. Inter- and intra-rater reliability was evaluated using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and agreement was evaluated using Bland-Altman plots. Inter- and intra-rater reliability was good (ICC range of 0.8694-0.89520) and excellent (ICC range of 0.9720-0.9966), respectively. For agreement calculations, an a priori clinically relevant limit of agreement of 10 mm was set. Inter- and intra-rater agreement was unacceptable with inter-rater limits of agreement ranging from 15.9 to 55.6 mm and intra-rater limit of agreement ranging from 11.9 to 28.1 mm. Review of the measurement trial photographs revealed that calliper orientation changes were frequent, occurring in 9/12 (75%) and 8/12 (67%) pre- and post-sedation cases. No significant correlation was found between inter-rater measurement standard deviations and calliper orientation changes or dog body condition score. These findings suggest veterinarians may have poor agreement in determining the gross edge of tumours, which is expected to introduce bias and inconsistency in tumour staging, assessing response to therapy, and surgical margin planning. Due to the potential consequences for veterinary cancer patients, future studies are needed to validate the present findings.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29498186/