Jeon et al developed a symptom severity score for evaluating a patient with globus pharyngeus. This can help to monitor severity especially during therapy. The authors are from Pusan National University in Korea.
Patient selection: globus pharyngeus
Methodology: symptom diary
Parameters:
(1) symptom severity
(2) number of days per week (from 0 to 7)
Symptom Severity
Features
Points
none
no symptoms
0
mild
easily tolerated; no impact on usual activities
1
moderate
some discomfort; sometimes interferes with usual activities
2
severe
much discomfort; considerable interference with usual activities
3
score =
= (points for symptom severity) * (number of days per week)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 21
• The higher the score the more severe the globus symptoms.
• A modification would be to score the number of episodes per week. With the current score a person with multiple episodes per day would score the same as someone with a single episode.
A treatment response was defined as a reduction in score between 2 assessments > 50%.
