PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

W Igl

Publications and source records attributed to W Igl.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

[Sensitivity to change of questionnaires measuring subjective health--results of a prospective comparative study].

PURPOSE: Questionnaires measuring patients' subjective health or health-related quality of life are indispensable tools for the evaluation of effects revealed by intervention studies in the field of medical rehabilitation. These patient-reported outcomes should appropriately reflect change over time. Unfortunately, "sensitivity to change" has so far not been adequately examined for German health-related quality of life questionnaires, especially not in a comparative way. Therefore, indices of sensitivity to change for three widespread generic assessment tools have been determined: IRES-3, SF-36, scales of the SCL-90-R. METHODS: A prospective comparative study was conducted in n = 1145 inpatients with orthopaedic/rheumatologic and cardiac diseases from 16 rehabilitation clinics. All patients received usual care. Their subjective health-status was assessed at two to four weeks before admission (t0), admission (t1), discharge (t2), and three months after discharge (t3). At each time point, they completed the IRES-3, SF-36, and relevant scales of the SCL-90-R. For the time interval t1-t2, Guyatt's responsiveness index (GRI) was calculated and compared across scales and instruments. RESULTS: Virtually all GRI coefficients for scales and aggregated scores, respectively, reached statistical significance. With respect to the GRI distributions of the diagnostic groups, most coefficients were located in a middle to upper range. While the results for the scales do not clearly indicate which assessment instrument should be preferred, GRI coefficients for higher aggregated scores suggest the IRES-3 to be most sensitive to change. CONCLUSION: These results can be helpful in selecting a health-related quality of life instrument or certain subscales for evaluation studies in the field of medical rehabilitation.

Germany↗
PubMed2005

[Sensitivity to change].

In rehabilitation research patient questionnaires are widely used for evaluative purposes, i. e. to measure improvements or deteriorations over time. This is only possible if the questionnaires applied appropriately reflect "true" change over time, i. e. they have to be sensitive to change. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of the "sensitivity to change" concept for evaluative assessment tools and evaluative studies, respectively, considering quality of life research as an example. Various qualitative aspects, e. g. scaling of response options of assessment tools, are covered as well as quantitative methods, i. e. study designs and indices. Furthermore, recommendations for interpretation are given.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1983

[Comparison of mammography and automated sonography in 700 patients].

700 patients underwent routinely x-ray mammography and breast ultrasound with an automated grey-scale breast scanner. The parenchymal pattern of the ultrasound B-scan was morphological identical to the x-ray film. The echogram gave further informations about the topographic localisation of pathologic lesions to the chest wall including the pectoral muscles. The sonogram was of no value in 10 percent due to diffuse reflection of the breast. In cystic disease the diagnostic accuracy of the ultrasound was with about 100 percent superior to that of x-ray mammography. On the contrary the accuracy of the x-ray mammography was higher than that of ultrasound in the diagnosis of benign or malignant solids. Benign adenoma smaller than 1 cm could not be definetively recognised as carcinoma of this size. The diagnostic accuracy of the sonogram was 70 percent by 40 histologically proved carcinomas. The only use of the automated scanner in the diagnostics of the breast seams to be not justified, even not as a screening method, especially because small tumors with good prognosis are not recognized, however, the ultrasound gives additional important informations in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant lesions of the female breast.

Adenofibroma↗
PubMed1981

[Sonographic determination of thyroid volume. Comparison with other methods (author's transl)].

Using ultrasound it is possible to determine the thyroid volume with a maximal error of 12%. The method is based on the electronic planimetry of a sequence of transverse ultrasound scans of the thyroid. Following this, the "slices" are added using a small computer. On 101 patients five commonly used methods of volume determination were compared with this reference technique. The volume estimation by palpation and interpretation of the scintigram as well as the volume calculation from the scintigram area or from an ellipsoid model gave maximal errors between plus or minus 82% and plus or minus 90%. The combination of scintigram area or scintigraphically determined length and width of a single thyroid lobe and the sonographically measured thickness reduced the maximal error to plus or minus 35% and plus or minus 37%. In 10 patients teh reproducibility of the reference technique was excellent and the absolute maximal error was 4.6%, even when the patients were differently positioned.

Adolescent↗