ArticlePrimary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group2012
How do dyspnoea scales compare with measurement of functional capacity in patients with COPD and at risk of COPD?
Article in Primary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review of the association between exercise tests and patient-reported outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2017Pooled it
- Functional Status Assessment of Patients With COPD: A Systematic Review of Performance-Based Measures and Patient-Reported Measures.Medicine · 2016Pooled it
- Activity restriction in mild COPD: a challenging clinical problem.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2014Review
- Flow-Volume Parameters in COPD Related to Extended Measurements of Lung Volume, Diffusion, and Resistance.Pulmonary medicine · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn primary care, formal functional capacity testing is not always feasible. Guidelines for family practitioners suggest the use of dyspnoea scales to assess exercise tolerance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
aimsTo examine whether the use of activity-based dyspnoea scales can substitute for actual functional capacity testing.
methods128 subjects (49% at risk of COPD, 24% GOLD stage I, 17% GOLD stage II, 9% GOLD stage III) performed an Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT) and completed the Medical Research Council dyspnoea scale (MRC), Baseline Dyspnoea Index (BDI), Oxygen Cost Diagram (OCD), Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ), and St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ).
resultsAnalysis of variance showed that the relationship between the ISWT and the MRC dyspnoea scale was statistically significant but moderate (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.166). Correlations between the ISWT and the other dyspnoea scales were also moderate (correlation coefficients 0.34-0.42). Combining the dyspnoea scales in one analysis resulted in a proportion of explained variance of the ISWT of 21.4% (R2 = 0.214).
conclusionsDyspnoea scales cannot substitute for formal functional capacity testing. Authors of COPD guidelines should consider stating more specifically that the MRC and similar scales measure (self-reported) activity-related dyspnoea but cannot replace objectively measured functional capacity.
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Registered trials
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