Purpose: This study was conducted to describe and validate a novel inflammatory score (IS) system in the management of infectious endophthalmitis.
Methods: This was a prospective comparative non-interventional observational study. The study included the patients with clinical signs and symptoms of acute post-cataract surgery endophthalmitis (surgery within 6 weeks) with visual acuity from 6/18 to light perception. IS was scored by the clinical picture at two-levels of four ocular tissues on a scale of 0 (normal) to 4 (severe). Four masked graders of different levels of experience evaluated slit-lamp photographs. The concordance correlation coefficient was assessed between the slit-lamp clinical grading and photographic grading. We measured the concordance correlation coefficient, Pearson's correlation (indicating precision), and the bias correction factor (indicating the accuracy).
Results: The study included 43 eyes of 43 patients. The concordance correlation coefficient was 0.99 (95% CI 0.995 to 0.998). Both Pearson's correlation coefficient and the bias correction were 0.99. The interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was measured. The intra-rater ICC was 0.833 with good agreement (95% CI, 0.711 to 0.906; P < 0.001). Inter-rater ICC for consistency was 0.92 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.95). Inter-rater ICC for absolute agreement was 0.86 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.93).
Conclusion: Currently used IS scoring in the study is a reliable, reproducible, and easy-to-apply scale to measure inflammation severity in endophthalmitis. We propose that it can have applications in decision-making for primary treatment and monitoring progression in acute infectious endophthalmitis.
Keywords: Endophthalmitis; endophthalmitis management study; grading scale; inflammatory score.