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The St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire in Pulmonary Sarcoidosis

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Abstract

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.

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Data Availability

The data sharing policy of Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson is available at https://www.janssen.com/clinical-trials/transparency. As noted on this site, requests for access to the study data can be submitted through Yale Open Data Access (YODA) Project site at http://yoda.yale.edu.

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Correspondence to R. P. Baughman.

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Janssen provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s). Co-authors KL, YW, and EB are employees of Janssen and were part of team involved in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. JD and RB received grant funding from Janssen as participants in the study.

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Lo, K.H., Donohue, J., Judson, M.A. et al. The St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire in Pulmonary Sarcoidosis. Lung 198, 917–924 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-020-00394-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-020-00394-7

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