Evaluation of Changes in Symptom Burden Using CAT and mMRC Scores in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD is a lung problem that gets worse over time. It makes it hard to breathe. People with COPD have a lot of symptoms. To figure out how bad the symptoms are doctors need to assess them. This is important for deciding what treatment to use and, for checking if the treatment is working. There are two tools that doctors use to evaluate how bad the symptoms are. One is called the COPD Assessment Test or CAT. The other is called the Modified Medical Research Council or mMRC dyspnea scale. This review looks at what we know about how well these two tools work. The CAT looks at lots of aspects of COPD while the mMRC mainly looks at how hard it is for people to breathe. When we compare the two tools we can see that they are somewhat related. They are not exactly the same. The CAT and the mMRC do not always pick up on the things like how well someone responds to treatment or how their disease is progressing. Using both the CAT and the mMRC might be an idea because it could help doctors get a better understanding of what is going on with their patients. This could lead to treatment plans that are tailored to each individual person with COPD.