title: The acutely dypsneic patient.
abstract: The limited variation of pulmonary responses to disease--dyspnea, cough, production of adventitious sounds, sputum production, and hemoptysis--complicates the differential diagnosis of the acutely ill patient with obvious severe pulmonary disease. This paper attempts to reinforce and redefine this problem: acute cardiac and pulmonary dyspnea can generally be separated by quick but careful clinical analysis; mis-diagnosis may lead to disaster since effective treatment of one is frequently harmful to the other.
mesh_terms: D001314:Auscultation; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D013147:Spirometry; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010100:Oxygen