@article {Shafiqp900, author = {Irfan Shafiq and Kayleigh Huggett and Luaie Idris and Banu Rudran and Timothy Shaw}, title = {Use of COPD assessment (CAT) test in monitoring acute exacerbations}, volume = {38}, number = {Suppl 55}, elocation-id = {p900}, year = {2011}, publisher = {European Respiratory Society}, abstract = {Introduction: The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) is a new patient completed questionnaire that has recently been validated to provide a simple assessment of health status in COPD. It is known that patients with moderate to severe exacerbation score about 5 units higher on CAT [1] and hence it may be useful in diagnosing and monitoring exacerbations.Methods: We administered the CAT at the time of presentation with exacerbation and at the time of discharge home. We also measured the FEV1 on both encounters.Results: We have results of 102 patients (60 men and 42 women). The initial mean CAT score was 22.55 and it improved to 19.28 by the time of discharge, this is an improvement of 3.27 points in CAT score on recovery from exacerbation. Although the mean improvement in CAT was not as high as 5 points, the difference between the two Cat scores was highly significant (p 0.002). Mean FEV1 improved from 0.89 to 1L but the difference was not statistically significant (p 0.073). The full results are displayed in the table below.View this table:Baseline characteristics and resultsConclusions: CAT might be a useful tool in monitoring recovery from COPD exacerbation and could help to determine the optimum time for discharging patient from hospital. Larger studies are needed to validate this use of CAT.References:1. Jones PW, Harding G, Berry P, et al. Development and first validation of the COPD Assessment Test. Eur Respir J 2009; 34: 648-54.}, issn = {0903-1936}, URL = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p900}, eprint = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content}, journal = {European Respiratory Journal} }