The St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire in Pulmonary Sarcoidosis

Rationale The Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) is a frequently used tool to assess health status in pulmonary disease patients. However, its performance characteristics in sarcoidosis patients are not well characterized. Methods Data from a clinical trial of 138 symptomatic adults with sarcoidosis were used to examine the performance characteristics of SGRQ. Data were available at both baseline and week 24. Other assessments included FVC, FEV1, ATS dyspnea score, Borg's CR 10 dyspnea score, 6-min walk distance (6MWD), and Short Form-36 Physical Component Summary (SF-36 PCS) score. Results Baseline SGRQ was 46.8, indicating impaired health status. At baseline, SGRQ total score correlated significantly with % predicted FVC, FEV1, ATS dyspnea score, Borg's CR 10 dyspnea score, 6MWD, and SF-36 PCS (r = - 0.37, - 0.32, 0.57, 0.40, - 0.55, and - 0.80, respectively,p < 0.001). Change from baseline in SGRQ score also statistically significantly correlated with change from baseline in these parameters at week 24:r = - 0.25, - 0.20, 0.30, 0.22, - 0.20, - 0.45, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusions The SGRQ correlated with other outcome measures in sarcoidosis initially and with treatment. Improvement in FVC % predicted correlated with improvement in SGRQ. These data suggest the SGRQ may function as a reliable endpoint in clinical sarcoidosis trials.