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Rheumatology 2008 47(Supplement 5):v68-v69; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken273
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Rheumatology issue: Update in systemic sclerosis [View the issue table of contents]

The 6-minute walk test in scleroderma—how measuring everything measures nothing

A. J. Impens1, S. Wangkaew1 and J. R. Seibold1

1University of Michigan Scleroderma Program, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Correspondence to: J. R. Seibold, University of Michigan Scleroderma Program, 3918 Taubman Center/0358, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0358, USA. E-mail: jseibold{at}umich.edu


  Abstract

The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a standardized measure of submaximal exercise capacity that has served as the primary measure of outcome in studies of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Never fully validated in scleroderma, a variety of data suggest that many non-pulmonary aspects of scleroderma contribute to its results thereby blunting the ability of the 6MWT to measure change in lung function. Although reproducible, the lack of correlation with measures of parenchymal lung disease demonstrates an insurmountable lack of both construct and content validity. The 6MWT should be abandoned as an outcome measure in lung disease complicating scleroderma.

KEY WORDS: Six-minute walk test, Pulmonary arterial hypertension, Interstitial lung disease, Scleroderma, Systemic sclerosis, Outcome measures

Submitted 1 May 2008; Accepted 18 June 2008


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