Table 4.
Proportion of cats assessed as having selected physical examination or ultrasound findings based on whether the examiner was the NSP or the cardiologist and the level of agreement (kappa) and 95% confidence intervals between the 2 examiner types across the study cohort
| Proportion of cats in reference diagnosis groups (normal; heart disease; equivocal) | Level of agreement between NSP and cardiologist | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parameter | NSP | Cardiologist | Kappa (95% CI) | P |
| Heart murmur (Y/N) | 61/87; 75/27; 23/16 | 68/80; 86/16; 22/17 | 0.583 | <.001 |
| (0.485‐0.676) | ||||
| Gallop rhythm (Y/N) | 11/137; 8/93; 5/34 | 5/143; 11/91; 3/36 | 0.272 | <.001 |
| (0.077‐0.449) | ||||
| Arrhythmia‐auscultation (Y/N) | 8/140; 11/90; 2/36 | 3/145; 25/77; 0/38 | 0.309 | <.001 |
| (0.124‐0.486) | ||||
| Left atrial enlargement‐FCU (Y/N) | 6/142; 23/79; 3/36 | 1/147; 53/49; 7/32 | 0.333 | <.001 |
| (0.205‐0.460) | ||||
| Left ventricular‐hypertrophy FCU (Y/N) | 33/115; 68/32; 15/24 | 4/144; 82/20; 12/27 | 0.375 | <.001 |
| (0.269‐0.472) | ||||
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; FCU, focused cardiac ultrasound; NSP, nonspecialist practitioner.