New GOLD update

[Lynne1955]

I hope this works.

This is from the copd uk and is the latest update on GOLD classifications for copd. I now need someone to translate parts of it for me!

Lynne xx

pulmccm.org/2013/review-art...

[scrobbitty]

Yikes ! According to that I should be saying my farewells in the next three minutes

[phillips1 in reply to scrobbitty]

Bye xxxxx

[wowsa]

Blimey! It's a foreign language. Good bedtime reading I think!

[libbygood]

Got fed up with it half way through, above me and couldn't make any sense of it. i expect someone out there can.

Lin x

[Gordon57]

One line in that document says it all, for those worried...

Bottom line:new GOLD was no better at predicting mortality than old GOLD.

After all, it's just a means of the medical profession being able to give us a 'score' and put us into a category system they (should) all understand, It's not like you can enter a few details and it tells you how long you've got left on the planet...

For myself I am either MRC=4, or a CAT score of 30, and have 10-12 exacerbations a year, so I am in the catagery D = High risk, higher symptom burden - whoopee, do I get a lollipop ?

You have to be able to assess the condition against the other tables this document links to, the MRC scale is the easiest - occmed.oxfordjournals.org/c... or CAT is here - erj.ersjournals.com/content... (use the last page to get your score)

Now consider how many exacerbations you have in a year and combine your results to find where you are on the GOLD scale - see, you didn't want to know really !

[Gordon57 in reply to Gordon57]

Oops - missed a bit, my FEV1 was 46% at the last hospital check, to add to the info needed to arrive at a category

[scrobbitty in reply to Gordon57]

Yep still only got about three minutes left on that basis

Good job I laugh in the face of statistics really

[Gordon57 in reply to scrobbitty]

Yeah, but 84.23% of statistics are just made up anyway...

[scrobbitty in reply to Gordon57]

[Lynne1955 in reply to Gordon57]

Just worked mine out thanks to your links Gordon.

FEV1 55%, MRC=3, CAT = 14 and so far, one exacerbation per year (but that's been a big one).

So I'm category B, low risk, higher symptom.

Lynne xx

[undine in reply to Gordon57]

Thanks for these links Gordon I liked the CAT one think it is more human than the others - interesting thanks x

[Hidden]

The only bit of this that makes sense is "We (clinicians and researchers) have recognized that the clinical behavior of individual patients with COPD is much more complex than is determined by the degree of airflow obstruction alone". According to the rest of it, it seems I have been dead quite some time. There again, it is from the US! George RIP.

[Lynne1955 in reply to Hidden]

Heee. I think the GOLD scale is used in the UK too though.

Lynne xx

[Hidden in reply to Lynne1955]

Yes, you're right Lynne. George

[libbygood]

I think I'll just take each day one at a time and leave it at that.

Lib x

[Hidden]

Its the same ol same ol, nothing is written in stone and we are all unique, but I guess we knew that already

[Lynne1955 in reply to Hidden]

I agree. If nothing else, i suppose it does go some way to explain why 2 people with the same level of diagnosis can often have very different levels of day to day symptoms and difficulties.

Lynne xx

[Hidden in reply to Lynne1955]

Its a good thing the medical profession are now acknowledging this too.

BC x

[Hidden]

Read it through twice, studied very closely, I am, apparently, calling you from the other side - it's much the same really

[copdber]

O Lord I can manage to do this I've tried but it's just not happening for me. I'm disappointed now but I will come back to it later today. Thanks Lynne you've set me a right brain tester. Hope Gordon will be around to help me out. Hate it when things beet me so I'll be back