Comparison of Scales Used to Quantitate the Sense of Effort to Breathe in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Several different scaling techniques, i.e., Borg category (BC) and visual analogue (VA) scales have been used to quantitate the intensity of the respiratory sensations elicited during exercise, but their relationship is unclear. Six subjects with stable chronic obstructive lung disease (FEV1 = 1.2 +/- 0.1 SE L) simultaneously rated the sense of effort to breathe with both BC and VA scales during progressive, maximal exercise tests performed three to five times on a cycle ergometer. The VA scores correlated linearly with minute ventilation in all subjects in all trials (r = 0.98 +/- 0.01), and when converted to common units (i.e., Z scores) correlated closely with simultaneous scores obtained using the Borg scale (r = 0.99 +/- 0.01). Furthermore, VA scores varied minimally over several trials. Coefficient of variation for the maximal VA scores was 6 +/- 1%, which was similar to the variation in maximal Borg score (i.e., 3 +/- 1%). We conclude that the visual analogue scale is reproducible and correlates closely with the Borg score when scaling the sense of effort to breathe during exercise in subjects with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

High Dose Vitamin D3 Improves Exercise Tolerance in Elderly Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

“…The observed discrepancy between dyspnea score and the distance may be due to inability of elderly patients to discriminate easily between terms such as slight dyspnea and somewhat sever dyspnea (2 vs.4 score respectively). Based on the documentations by Muza et al, [30] psychometric measures such as visual analogue and Borg scale have good reproducibility but the proximity of verbal descriptors might be confusing and discouraging for patients with COPD. Therefore, rating dyspnea by Borg scale might not be highly sensitive [30,31].…”

“…Based on the documentations by Muza et al, [30] psychometric measures such as visual analogue and Borg scale have good reproducibility but the proximity of verbal descriptors might be confusing and discouraging for patients with COPD. Therefore, rating dyspnea by Borg scale might not be highly sensitive [30,31].…”

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“…It has also been validated (Gift et al, 1989), and is more sensitive and precise than Borg's scale (Muza et al, 1990). …”

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“…Importantly, exercise intolerance cannot be predicted in the individual patient from indices of pulmonary and cardiac function at rest [70][71][72][73]. V9O 2 ,peak obtained with CPET is the best available index of aerobic capacity in COPD, provided that the subject has attained his or her limits (see supplementary material, 1.1), and its measurement is also reasonably reproducible in COPD [74][75][76].…”