Elisa Albertini (Italy)
Ca' Foncello Hospital NeurocardiovascularAuthor Of 1 Presentation
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE MYASTHENIA GRAVIS TELESCORE (MGTS)
- Francesca Pasqualin (Italy)
Abstract
Background and Aims:
Covid-19 pandemic has boosted telemedicine in clinical practice. It could be crucial in the care of neurological patients with chronic disease. However there is a lack of specific disease tools to evaluate patients in telemedicine. The aim of our study was to validate the Myasthenia Gravis TeleScore (MGTS), a scale for the evaluation of MG patients in telemedicine.
Methods:
The MGTS included ten items divided in four districts: ocular, generalized muscular strength, bulbar, respiratory. Patients were assessed with two different scales: the MGTS, and the INCB-MG chosen as gold standard and from whom MGTS was partially derived. Visit in presence with INCB-MG and televisit with MGTS were performed consecutively. Televisit was conducted by another neurologist between two rooms. A blind method was adopted. The strength of correlation was determined by the correlation coefficient (r); analysis of covariance (ANOVA-Kruskal Wallis test) was used to compare subgroups. Significance was set to p<0,05.
Results:
131 patients were included in the study, 71 females, 60 males. The Spearman correlation coefficient between the INCB-MG scale and the MGTS was 0.825 (p < 0.001), indicating a very strong correlation between them. Different items showed different correlations from low to high (0,32 to 0,80). As expected correlation was lower between items with different evaluation modality (anamnestic vs clinical).
Conclusions:
The MGTS demonstrated a good correlation with INCB. It is reliable and has demonstrated construct validity.