Usefulness of Cat Score in Patients with Stable Copd and Acute Exacerbation of Copd and it's Co-Relation with PFT.

COPD was reported to be the 6th leading cause of death worldwide in the year 1990 and 4th in 2000. The CAT i.e. COPD Assessment Test was introduced in 2009 as an easy tool to assess health status impairment in COPD patients. The CAT evaluates severity that a patient experiences of many of the symptoms of COPD like breathlessness, cough, phlegm, etc. and is observed to be quite abnormal even in mild form of the disease. Hence it can be used as a simple tool to identify patients who are at increased risk of exacerbations. Material: All OPD and IPD patients coming to Navodaya Medical college Raichur, fulfilling the inclusion criteria i.e- Any patient with acute exacerbation of COPD diagnosed by clinical history and examination,any patient with Stable COPD and willing to participate were enrolled in the study. Patients with Interstitial Lung Diseases, Bronchial Asthma, History of Myocardial Infarction within 1 month, Chest or abdominal pain of any cause, oral or facial pain exacerbated by a mouthpiece, stress incontinence,dementia or confusional state, BMI > 25 kg/ m2 were excluded from the study. Sample size - Acute Exacerbation: Minimum 50 cases. Stable Disease: Minimum 50 cases. Appropriate statistical software, including but not restricted to MS Excel, SPSS ver. 20 were used for statistical analysis. Observation: The coefficient of correlation between CAT score and FEV1 (% predicted) in stable COPD cases is significant at 0.05 level of significance. The coefficient of correlation between CAT score and FEV1: FVC in stable COPD cases at 0.05 level of significance.The association between cases of Acute Exacerbation of COPD on Day 1 and Day 5 was significant between CAT scores, pulse rate, respiratory rate, FVC (%predicted) and FEV1 (%predicted) Conclusion: The CAT score provides a simple and reliable measure of overall COPD related health status for long term follow-up of an individual patient and their assessment. CAT score correlates well with PFT parameters in stable disease and during acute exacerbation. Hence it provides a reliable score of severity of the disease. In addition, the CAT score is cost effective, easy to use and is particularly useful for health settings where access to other objective measurements like spirometry is limited.