Measurement of dyspnoea in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This paper reviews the assessment of shortness of breath in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The validity criteria for evaluating measures of dyspnoea are discussed and a description and critique of current measures of shortness of breath are offered. Across studies, dyspnoea measures are moderately correlated with pulmonary function (e.g. FEV1.0 and FVC), psychological function, and walking tests (6 min walk). In addition, dyspnoea measures tend to be correlated with one another. The need for standardisation of dyspnoea measures for research and clinical practice is identified as an important objective for future work.