The Borg scale is accurate in children and adolescents older than 9 years with cystic fibrosis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the accuracy of the modified Borg scale to estimate lung impairment, measured via FEV(1) in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis.


METHODS
This cross-sectional prospective study was conducted with cystic fibrosis patients, 6-18 y old. With the modified Borg scale we evaluated their subjective perceptions of dyspnea before and after submaximal exercises, and its correlation with lung function (spirometry), 6-min walk test (6MWT), and nutritional status according to body mass index.


RESULTS
Forty-one patients (mean +/- SD age range 11.1 +/- 4.1 y), were included in the study. The median (and interquartile range) modified Borg scale score after 6MWT was 2 (1-3). The mean percent-of-predicted FEV(1) (FEV(1)%) was 97 +/- 32%. The Z score of the 6MWT distance (6MWTZ) for 61% of the patients was < or = -2. The modified Borg scale correlated weakly with the other variables when all patients in the sample were analyzed. There was a significantly greater correlation of the Borg-scale score with FEV(1)% (r = -0.59, P = .003) and with 6MWTZ (r = 0.46, P = .03) when patients older than 9 years were evaluated separately. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that a modified-Borg-scale cut-off point of 2.5 generated an area of 0.80, a sensitivity of 80%, a specificity of 77%, and an accuracy of 0.78 to predict FEV(1)% lower than 80% in the group of patients older than 9 years.


CONCLUSIONS
The modified Borg scale is accurate to assess the subjective perception of dyspnea of children older than 9 years and adolescents with cystic fibrosis.
Hommerding
Patrícia X
PX
Cystic Fibrosis Center, Hospital São Lucas da PUCRS, Avenida Ipiranga, 6690 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. patixh@yahoo.com.br
Donadio
Márcio Vf
MV
Paim
Taisa F
TF
Marostica
Paulo Jc
PJ
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000150:complications*; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index