MONDAY, Dec. 24 (HealthDay News) -- The Roenigk system to classify liver fibrosis is reliable with reasonable interobserver variability, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Dermatology.
Maartje A.M. Berends, M.D., and colleagues from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands determined the interobserver variation in the Roenigk score for liver damage by having an experienced pathologist re-examine 160 liver biopsies from patients treated with methotrexate for psoriasis.
The researchers found that the concordance in the Roenigk grade of fibrosis was high (weighted kappa 0.73). There was also good agreement regarding how many patients should have changes in treatment (kappa 0.71).
"Based on this study, we conclude that the interobserver reliability of the Roenigk classification is good and that it can be used as a scoring system for methotrexate-induced liver damage," Berends and colleagues conclude.
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