Abstract
Background: The measurements for level of dyspnea such as Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea scale or modified Borg dyspnea scale were used common in the trials. COPD assessment test (CAT) is a recently introduced to use to disease-specific quality of life and follow-up of the patients with COPD.
Objective: We aimed that assessed effect of the dyspnea on disease-specific quality of life detected by CAT score in the patients with COPD.
Methods: In this study, 90 stable patients with COPD as defined by the GOLD criteria were included. The level of dyspnea was assessed with two different scales, MRC dyspnea scale and modified Borg dyspnea scale, and disease-specific quality of life assessed with the CAT score.
Results: Patients' mean ± SD age was 68.5±10.9 (range 41 – 97) years. A significant relationship was established among CAT score, MRC dyspnea scale, modified Borg dyspnea scale, the GOLD stage of the patients with COPD. There was a positive correlation between dyspnea scales and the GOLD stage of the patients (p<0.001), and also positive correlation between CAT score and dyspnea scales (p<0.001). The CAT score and dyspnea scales had a significant correlation with hospitalization and emergency room applications (p<0.05). Conclusion: It is suggested that dyspnea is an important symptom that impact the quality of life in the patients with COPD. The CAT is simple, fast and an easy intelligible measurement for the disease-specific quality of life and it is correlated with levels of dyspnea of the patients with COPD.
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