Re: Grades on A?(Debbi)

[Guest guest]

Hi Deb,

I agree with you! It might just be individual doctors. I believe it

was Cindi that said she would find the website when she had time.

Well it is still interesting none the less, thinking that there might

be a scale.

Genia

> I didn't have time to read the whole thing, but the reference

to " grades " that I found described them in terms of subjective

symptom evaluations:

>

> Symptoms assessed were dysphagia, regurgitation, chest pain, and

heartburn. The frequency of each symptom was graded on a scale from 0

to 5 (0 = none; 1 = rare, 1 per month or less; 2 = occasional, once a

week, up to 3 to 4 times a month; 3 = frequent, 2 to 4 times a week;

4 = often, once a day; 5 = severe, several times a day).

>

> It appears that this " grading scale " was made just for the purposes

of " before and after " comparisons for this one study, and the width

of the esophagus isn't discussed in reference to what grade is

assigned (they do mention that after a myotomy, the widths for people

in grades 2-5 were significantly reduced, but that refers to the

grade of the *symptoms* rather than the grade of the *esophagus

width*.)

>

> No wonder it's so hard to compare apples to apples with this

disease, if each doctor/hospital has their own individually created

classification system! )

>

> Deb

> I did a searach on google and got a list one of which is taken

from the Cleveland Clinic

http://jtcs.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/120/5/935 I didn't

take the time to read through each one but the do suggest " grades " in

the headers. I think it said you can get a free abstract of the

article.

> F