Rose Angina Questionnaire: validation with cardiologists' diagnoses to detect coronary heart disease in Bangladesh

AIM/OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to validate the Rose Angina Questionnaire (RAQ) to detect coronary heart disease (CHD) by comparing with cardiologists' diagnoses in Bangladesh. METHODS: Patients aged 40-75 years attending to two cardiac hospitals were diagnosed as either CHD positive or CHD negative by cardiologists. The RAQ was used to reclassify them into CHD positive [RAQ] and CHD negative [RAQ]. FINDINGS: There were 302 CHD positive [cardiologists] and 302 CHD negative [cardiologists] individuals. The RAQ reclassified 194 individuals as CHD positive [RAQ] and 409 individuals as CHD negative [RAQ]. Therefore, the RAQ had 53% sensitivity and 89% specificity. There was no difference in sensitivity and specificity during subgroup analyzes by age and gender; the sensitivity was higher among people from lower socio-economic status. CONCLUSION: The RAQ, having moderate sensitivity but high specificity to detect CHD, can be used to screen individuals at risk of CHD in large-scale epidemiological surveys.