Archivos de bronconeumología
-
Arch. Bronconeumol. · Jan 2000
Comparative Study[A comparison of several measurement scales for assessing dyspnea in their daily activities in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease].
The objective of this study was to compare two instruments for measuring dyspnea to functional capacity, defined as maximal oxygen uptake in a stress test limited by symptoms. We carried out a descriptive study to determine correlation between the methods. Subjects with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were enrolled and dyspnea during daily activities was evaluated using the Medical Research Council (MRC) scale and the chronic respiratory disease health perception questionnaire (CRQ). ⋯ We also observed that the clinical scales for dyspnea correlated with each other, as did the VAS and Borg scale, but that there was no correlation between the two types of measurement. We conclude that clinical dyspnea indexes (CRQ and MRC) correlate well with maximal aerobic capacity and with each other. However, the VAS and Borg scale do not correlate with functional capacity measured by peak VO2 and VE.