Screening for early symptoms of respiratory involvement in myotonic dystrophy type 1 using the Respicheck questionnaire

•The Respicheck questionnaire looks for symptoms of respiratory involvement in DM1.•The higher the scores on the Respicheck the worst is the respiratory impairment.•A cut-off of 2 discriminates patients with respiratory impairment.•Patients with the higher scores have a higher risk of respiratory involvement.•Patients with scores below 2 have a lower risk of respiratory involvement.