2013 Volume 56 Issue 12 Pages 932-937
The modified Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Score (mTCNS) is a reliable and valid clinical tool used to capture the early signs and symptoms of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy in clinical research. The mTCNS was originally developed by Bril et al. in 2009. In this study, a Japanese version of the mTCNS was created with the permission of Bril to assess the reliability of the Japanese mTCNS in patients with diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy. All study centers were located in Japan and only Japanese patients were included. The inter-rater reliability was assessed according to the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Kraemer's kappa coefficient. The intra-rater reliability was assessed according to Cohen's kappa coefficient. The ICC for the total mTCNS score was 0.81, and, with the exception of the position sense item, the Kraemer's kappa coefficients for the mTCNS items ranged from 0.26 to 0.50. The Cohen's kappa coefficients for the mTCNS items ranged from 0.44 to 0.71. These results are similar in magnitude to those of the original mTCNS, which indicates that the Japanese translation of the mTCNS has sufficient reliability for use in clinical research in Japan.
