To evaluate the frequency ofthe causes ofexercise limitation in patients with chronic pulmonary disease and to assess the relationship between the resting pulmonary functional parameters and the degree of exercise dyspnea, we reviewed the data from 88 consecutive stable patients with chronic lung disease (62 COPD, 16 interstitial lung disease [ILD]). In each patient, the intensity of dyspnea wa...

Dyspnea (shortness of breath) and pain are well-evolved warnings of important physiological derangements that may require animals to alter their behavior to survive. Dyspnea and pain are also two of the most common symptoms that bring patients to medical care, another potentially adaptive behavior. Chronic dyspnea and pain, however, cause suffering and disability in many millions of patients; t...

A 52-year-old postmenopausal woman presented because of a progressive dyspnea, non-productive cough and right side chest pain that worsened with deep inspiration. She had a history of breast carcinoma 2 years earlier and subsequent left segmental mastectomy, axillary dissection, adjuvant chemotherapy and local radiotherapy (RT). One year later she underwent to a T-8 balloon vertebroplasty and l...

Dyspnea may be defined as an uncomfortable sensation of breathing. The sense of respiratory effort, chemoreceptor stimulation, mechanical stimuli arising in lung and chest wall receptors, and neuroventilatory dissociation may all contribute to the sensation of dyspnea. Different mechanisms likely give rise to qualitatively different sensations of dyspnea. In most patients, dyspnea is probably d...

222 Acute dyspnea may occur in the context of medical emergencies such as airway obstruction, pneumothorax, pulmonary embolism, and myocardial infarction. Chronic exertional dyspnea progressing to dyspnea at rest, as in this patient, suggests worsening pulmonary disease or heart failure. Orthopnea (dyspnea when supine) and trepopnea (dyspnea in the decubitus position) are suggestive of heart fa...

Studied the influence of actual and false peak flow (PEF) information on dyspnea (breathlessness) in two experiments, each with 30 children with and 30 without asthma (7-17 years). Dyspnea, PEF, and lung function were measured before and after standardized physical exercise. Dyspnea was measured with a visual analog scale. PEF was measured with a peak flow meter and used for manipulation of dys...