Work

Real-world experience: correlation of three dyspnoea questionnaires with measures of disease severity and progression in patients with interstitial lung diseases

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Dyspnoea is an important clinical and research outcome in patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).We evaluated the correlation of the British Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnoea scale, University of California, San Diego Shortness of Breath (UCSD) questionnaire and St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) with measures of disease severity and progression in patients with ILD and IPF. METHODS: We applied the three questionnaires to all patients with ILD during initial assessment (baseline visit), at 3-6 months (visit 2) and 9-12 months (visit 3). We used univariate analyses and multiple regression adjusting for age, sex, pulmonary hypertension, ILD diagnosis and forced vital capacity (FVC) to estimate the correlations of questionnaires with pulmonary function tests, 6 min walk test (6MWT) parameters and perceived dyspnoea at baseline visit (disease severity). We assessed the correlation between change (Δ) in dyspnoea questionnaires with change in functional variables between baseline and follow-up visits (progression). RESULTS: We enrolled 151 patients with ILD, 57 of them had IPF. At baseline, all questionnaires significantly correlated with FVC%, total lung capacity (TLC%), carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO%) and 6MWT metrics. Between visits 1 and 2, MRC-Δ correlated with TLC%-Δ and perceived dyspnoea-Δ and UCSD-Δ with perceived dyspnoea-Δ. Between visits 1 and 3, MRC-Δ correlated with FVC%-Δ and 6MWT distance-Δ; UCSD-Δ correlated with TLC%-Δ . SGRQ-Δ did not correlate with any variables in multivariable analyses. CONCLUSIONS: All questionnaires correlated well with ILD/IPF disease severity at baseline but not with disease progression. Improved questionnaires are needed for patients with ILD.

Source: BMJ Open Respiratory Research

DOI: 10.1136/bmjresp-2024-002726

Authors: Andres Moran-MacDonald, Sami Alyami, Sharina Aldhaheri, Maxine Kish, Sean Davison, Onofre Moran-Mendoza

Institutions: Queen's University, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Tawam Hospital, University of Toronto

Language: English

Topic: Interstitial Lung Diseases and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Subfield: Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,085