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Clinical Trial
. 2013 Oct;62(4):332-339.e6.
doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2013.02.021. Epub 2013 Apr 17.

Evaluation of the Mercy TAPE: performance against the standard for pediatric weight estimation

Susan M Abdel-Rahman  1 , Ian M Paul, Laura P James, Andrew Lewandowski; Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act-Pediatric Trials Network
Collaborators, Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Evaluation of the Mercy TAPE: performance against the standard for pediatric weight estimation

Susan M Abdel-Rahman et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2013 Oct.

Abstract

Study objective: We assessed the performance of 2 new devices (2D- and 3D-Mercy TAPE) to implement the Mercy Method for pediatric weight estimation and contrasted their accuracy with the Broselow method.

Methods: We enrolled children aged 2 months through 16 years in this prospective, multicenter, observational study. Height/length, weight, humeral length, and mid-upper arm circumference were obtained for each child, using calibrated scales and measures. We then made measurements with blinded versions of the 2D- and 3D-TAPEs. Using height/length data, we calculated the weight estimated by the Broselow method. We contrasted measures with mean error, mean percentage error, and percentage predicted within 10% and 20% of actual.

Results: Six hundred twenty-four participants (median 8.5 years, 27.6 kg, 17.3 kg/m(2)) completed the study. Mean error was 0.3 kg (mean percentage error 1.6%), 0.2 kg (mean percentage error 1.9%), and -1.3 kg (mean percentage error -4.1%) for 2D-, 3D-, and Broselow, respectively. Concordance between both TAPE devices and the Mercy Method was greater than 0.99. The proportion of children predicted within 10% and 20% of actual weight was 76% and 98% for the 2D-TAPE and 65% and 93% for the 3D-TAPE. Excluding the 209 (33%) children who were too tall for the device, Broselow predictions were within 10% and 20% of actual weight in 59% and 91%.

Conclusion: The 2D- and 3D-Mercy TAPEs outperform the Broselow tape for pediatric weight estimation and can be used in a wider range of children.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01507090.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prototypes of the 2D (left) and 3D (right) versions of the Mercy TAPE.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(left) Device-estimated weight versus reference weight for the 2D Mercy TAPE, the 3D Mercy TAPE and the Broselow tape. Open circles that fall along the x-axis represent children for whom the device could not return a weight. These are provided for illustrative purposes only and were treated as missing in the statistical analyses. (right) Bland-Altman plots constructed using log-transofrmed weight data generated by the 2D Mercy TAPE, the 3D Mercy TAPE and the Broselow tape. Dashed lines represent the means and 95% limits of agreement. Missing data for Broselow are not depicted on the relevant graph.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Frequency histograms displaying the observed variance in bin assignment between device-generated measurements and the corresponding measurements generated using a standard tape measure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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