Assessment of Respiratory Distress by the Roth Score

INTRODUCTION: Health care demand is increasing due to greater longevity of patients with chronic comorbidities. This increasing demand is occurring in a setting of resource scarcity. To address these changes, high-value care initiatives, such as telemedicine, are valuable resource-preservation strategies. This study introduces the Roth score as a telemedicine tool that uses patient counting times to accurately risk-stratify dyspnea severity in terms of hypoxia. HYPOTHESIS: The Roth score has correlation with dyspnea severity. METHODS: This is a prospective, controlled-cohort study. Roth score index is measured by having the patient count from 1 to 30 in their native language, in a single breath, as rapidly as possible. The primary result of the Roth score is the duration of time and the highest number reached. RESULTS: There was a strongly positive correlation between pulse oximetry and both maximal count achieved in 1 breath (r = 0.67; P 8 seconds had a sensitivity of 78% and specificity of 73% for pulse oximetry <95%. CONCLUSIONS: The Roth score has strong correlation with dyspnea severity as determined by hypoxia. This tool is reproducible, low resource-utilization, and amenable to telemedicine. It is not intended to replace full clinical workup and diagnosis of respiratory distress, but it is useful in risk-stratifying severity of dyspnea that warrants further clinical evaluation.