Kappa value is a statistical tool to obtain the agreement coefficient for presence or absence of diagnosis and specific diagnoses.
According to the kappa value performing palpation of the thyroid gland an intra observer variation kappa= -0,04 and 0,54 and inter observer variation kappa= 0,44 e 1,0 was found. For thyroid nodules the inter observer variation had a kappa = 0,55 e 0,6. This means that thyroid palpation had a moderate kappa value.

Typical Cutoffs for Defining Agreement Based on Kappa Value - 0.8 - 1.0 Very good/ 0.6 - 0.8 Good/ 0.4 - 0.6 Moderate/0.2 - 0.4 Fair/ 0.0 - 0.2 Poor

1 Jarlov A E et al, Observer variation in clinical assessment of the thyroid gland.Journal of Internal Medicine 1991; 229: 159-61

2-Jarlov AE et al. Observer variation in ultrasound assessment of the thyroid gland. British Journal of Radiology 1993; 66: 625-27.