PURPOSE: The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) assessment test (CAT) was recently introduced for use in assessing disease-specific quality of life and follow-up of patients with COPD. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the dyspnea on disease-specific quality of life detected by CAT score in patients with COPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, 90 stable patients with COPD as defined by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria were included. The level of dyspnea was assessed with the Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea scale, and disease-specific quality of life was assessed with CAT score. RESULTS: The mean+/-SD age was 68.5+/-10.9 (range 41-97) years. A significant relationship was established between CAT score, MRC dyspnea scale score and GOLD stage in patients with COPD. There was also a positive correlation between dyspnea scale scores and GOLD stage in the patients (p<0.001), as well as positive correlation between CAT score and dyspnea scale score (p<0.001). CAT score showed a significant correlation with hospitalization and exacerbations (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Dyspnea is an important symptom that may impact quality of life in patients with COPD. CAT was shown to be a simple, fast and intelligible measurement of disease-specific quality of life, and was correlated with levels of dyspnea in patients with COPD.
Aged ; Dyspnea/*complications ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/*complications ; Quality of Life ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Severity of Illness Index

We assessed whether acid fast bacilli (AFB) determination in gastric lavage (GL) and bronchial lavage (BL) contributes to diagnosis in cases radiologically suggestive of pulmonary tuberculosis but with either negative AFB in sputum or the inability to expectorate sputum. Of 129 cases recruited for the study, 22 were excluded due to evaluation as inactive disease or non-tuberculosis disease. The remaining 107 cases were evaluated in 2 groups. Group A consisted of 49 patients that could not expectorate sputum and from whom GL was obtained. In group B, BL was performed in 58 patients that had negative sputum smear. Smear positivity was 61.2% (30/49) and culture positivity was 30.6% (15/49) in group A, 51.7% (30/58) and 81% (47/58), respectively, in group B. Thirteen cases, in whom AFB could not be detected microbiologically but who were radiologically strongly suggestive of tuberculosis, were regarded as tuberculosis according to 'from treatment to diagnosis' criteria. In conclusion, detection of AFB positivity in the diagnosis of tuberculosis is important in terms of early initiation of treatment and detection of resistant bacilli. Therefore, we suggest that it would be helpful to obtain GL in cases where the patient is unable to expectorate sputum, and perform BL in cases with negative sputum smear.
Adult ; Aged ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Female ; Gastric Lavage ; Human ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/*isolation & purification ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/*diagnosis/radiography