Validation of complete and shortened WHO Rose angina questionnaire to detect coronary heart disease in a tertiary care hospital

OBJECTIVES: Validation of the complete and shortened RAQ to detect coronary heart disease (CHD) in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: In this prospective observational study, 239 patients aged 40-75 years with chest pain, referred for TMT from the cardiology OPD were subjected to RAQ and SRAQ, followed by a treadmill test (TMT). We used the treadmill test with the Bruce/modified Bruce protocol as the gold standard to assess RAQ and SRAQ. RESULTS: The RAQ had 44.3 % sensitivity, 72.6 % specificity, 59 % accuracy, 60 %, and 58.4 % positive and negative predictive values, 1.62, 0.77 positive and negative likelihood ratios, respectively. SRAQ had 87.8 % sensitivity, 27.4 % specificity, 56.5 % accuracy, 52.9 % and 70.8 % positive and negative predictive values, 1.21 and 0.44 positive, and negative likelihood ratios, respectively, to detect CHD. The sensitivity of RAQ and SRAQ was higher in women. CONCLUSION: Both RAQ and SRAQ have poor accuracy in diagnosing CHD in the Indian population. Alternate tools are needed for determining the population burden of CHD in India.