The Weeke Score is An Easy to Teach and Reliable System for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) Brain MRI Scoring

MRI is the imaging of choice to diagnose brain injury and prognosticate long term neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Independent scoring from Neuroradiology and Neonatology fellows were obtained for 97 brain MRIs for HIE after teaching. Analysis for reliability was compared against a gold standard of an experienced Neuroradiologist. There was good (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.87) reliability for the Neonatology fellow and excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.94) reliability for the Neuroradiology fellow compared to the Neuroradiologist. This suggests that the scoring system used has good interobserver reliability between less experienced readers compared to an experienced reader.