Introduction
In veterinary medicine, the Modified Glasgow Coma Scale (MGCS) is used for evaluating the neurological status of dogs. Due to the difficulty in evaluating patients undergoing ventilation, Platt (2014) suggested the application of the FOUR scale in veterinary medicine. This rating scale is considered the most accurate in assessing the state of consciousness in human patients undergoing mechanical ventilation. Andrade et al. (2010), tested the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale (pGCS) in adult dogs, showing good reliability.
We have therefore created the ICU Veterinary Coma Scale (ICU VeCS) for the evaluation of the state of consciousness, integrating the MGCS with the “breathing pattern” (BP) of the FOUR scale, with the “eye opening” (EO) and “motor activity” (MA) of the pGCS modifying MA to simplify its application. This study aims to compare the interrater reliability of the MGCS and the ICU VeCS amongst unselected patients hospitalized in the ICU department of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the University of Teramo from January to May 2021.
Methods
Thirty-three patients (16 cats, 17 dogs) of different ages and with different pathologies, have been assessed by two operators (a veterinarian and a veterinary student) applying the MGCS and ICU VeCS at arrival, after 12 hours (t12) and 24 hours (t24). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the assessment of the level of agreement between observers, and Spearman rho test correlation analysis for non-parametric data were used for the statistical analysis (Jamovi).
Results
Reliability and correlation analyses have been performed on the total evaluations (t0, t12, t24) of both the ICU VeCS and the MGCS (t0, t12, t24) of both the ICU VeCS and the MGCS, conducted by the two raters, respectively resulting in: ICU VeCS alpha 0.951 and MGCS alpha 0.959, regarding reliability; ICU VeCS rho 0.920 and MGCS rho 0.902, regarding correlation.
Conclusions
Both scales can be considered to have excellent inter-rater reliability and a very strong relationship.
E-mail: arianna.shivji@gmail.com