The usefullness of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test

Background: It is important to assess and monitor the patients in management of COPD. Recently the COPD assessment test (CAT) has been developed as a short simple method for assessing and monitoring of the quality of life in COPD patients. The obsject of this study is to evaluate the usefullness of the Korean version of COPD assessment test (KCAT) for assessing and monitoring COPD patients in Korea. Methods: The study was included 60 patients with COPD in outpatient clinic. We investigated the frequency of acute exacerbations during a previous year. We also measured the spirometry and distance to walk for 6 minutes and obtained the MMRC dyspnea scale, Korean version of the CAT, and BODE index. To assess the usefulness of KCAT, correlations between KCAT and other methods were evaluated. Results: The KCAT score was correlated significantly with FEV1% (r=0.323, p=0.012), the frequency of acute exacerbation (r=0.292, p=0.024), MMRC dyspnea scale (r=0.554, p<0.001), BODE index (r=0.380, p=0.003) and 6MWD (r= -0.372, p=0.004). The mean KCAT score was increased according to GOLD stages. Conclusions: The KCAT were shown to be useful assessment of COPD severity. Therefore the KCAT is easily applicable and simple method for assessment of COPD severity in outpatient clinic in Korea.