title: The Borg scale is accurate in children and adolescents older than 9 years with cystic fibrosis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Cystic Fibrosis Center, Hospital São Lucas da PUCRS, Avenida Ipiranga, 6690 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. patixh@yahoo.com.br
authors.forename: Patrícia X
authors.initials: PX
authors.lastname: Hommerding
authors.forename: Márcio Vf
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Donadio
authors.forename: Taisa F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Paim
authors.forename: Paulo Jc
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Marostica
mesh_terms: 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