후두 발적에 대한 컴퓨터 평가 시스템의 신뢰도 연구

Reliability of Computerized Measurement of Laryngeal Erythema

Background and Objectives : While considerable progress has been made in enhancing the quality of laryngoscopy and image processing, the evaluation of laryngeal erythema is still based on the clinician's judgement. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively measure the degree of erythema and to examine the relationship with clinical grading. Materials and Methods : Color images of larynx from 100 subjects were captured from video-documented examinations of laryngoscopy. The amount of erythema within the digitized larynx image was quantified using software developed and was compared with a grading system (0 to 3 scale) based on visual inspection by 4 experienced clinicians. The results were compared by deriving Kappa, Kendall and Spearman statistic. Results : There was high intra-observer(R=0.402-0.755) and inter-observer correlation (R=0.789). Among parameters, the red composite value had most remarkable agreement with clinical grading(R=0.827). Conclusion : The result suggest that the computer based analysis of laryngeal erythema can provide quantiative data on degree of erythema and the basis for further development of an expert system.