SUMMARY Despite a variety of measurement tools none can be recommended as gold st and ard for the assessment of dyspnoea .
A combination of unidimensional and multidimensional tools seems to be the best for clinical assessment .
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Refractory dyspnoea is a common and difficult to treat symptom in advanced disease .
Accurate assessment helps to guide treatment and prognosis .
RECENT FINDINGS The absence of commonly agreed assessment tools has been a significant barrier to improving care through inhibition of clinical research and limitation of clinicians ' ability to assess the effectiveness of their interventions .
Two recently published systematic review s on measurement tools for breathlessness identified a variety of tools but none could be recommended as gold st and ard .
For clinical purpose s , the combination of a unidimensional tool to assess dyspnoea severity and a multidimensional tool to evaluate the impact on a person 's quality of life seem most appropriate .
This review discusses the present evidence and puts forward a strategy for assessment and measurement of the symptom in clinical practice .
Measuring functional status in chronic lung disease: conclusions from a randomized control trial.
The optimal method of assessing the effect of treatment on the day-to-day function of patients with chronic airflow limitation is not established . Therefore , we examined the performance of the Six Minute Walk test , a rating of dyspnea following the test and three different question naires measuring dyspnea in daily activities , in a controlled trial of inhaled salbutamol and oral theophylline in 24 patients with primarily fixed chronic airflow limitation . Clinical ly important and statistically significant effects of salbutamol and theophylline on dyspnea during day-to-day activities were detected by each measure , but the Chronic Respiratory Question naire ( CRQ ) appeared more powerful than either the Oxygen Cost Diagram or the Medical Research Council Dyspnea Question naire as modified by the R and Corporation . Changes in the CRQ dyspnea score showed a higher correlation with changes in spirometry , walk test score , dyspnea following the walk test , and global ratings of dyspnea than did the other two measures . Results of the walk test demonstrated statistically significant salbutamol and theophylline effects , but suggested that no added benefit could be obtained with both drugs ; the rating of dyspnea following the walk test , however , was consistent with an additive effect . We conclude that the CRQ is a responsive , valid measure of functional status for clinical trials in chronic lung disease , and that when the six minute walk is used as a measure of outcome , dyspnea following the walk test should be measured
SUMMARY Despite a variety of measurement tools none can be recommended as gold st and ard for the assessment of dyspnoea .
A combination of unidimensional and multidimensional tools seems to be the best for clinical assessment .
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Refractory dyspnoea is a common and difficult to treat symptom in advanced disease .
Accurate assessment helps to guide treatment and prognosis .
RECENT FINDINGS The absence of commonly agreed assessment tools has been a significant barrier to improving care through inhibition of clinical research and limitation of clinicians ' ability to assess the effectiveness of their interventions .
Two recently published systematic review s on measurement tools for breathlessness identified a variety of tools but none could be recommended as gold st and ard .
For clinical purpose s , the combination of a unidimensional tool to assess dyspnoea severity and a multidimensional tool to evaluate the impact on a person 's quality of life seem most appropriate .
This review discusses the present evidence and puts forward a strategy for assessment and measurement of the symptom in clinical practice .