[Quantifying dyspnea].
Several methods have been proposed in the recent years to quantitate dyspnoea in healthy subjects or patients. Dyspnoea can be serially assessed on exercise, using either a visual analogue scale or a Borg scale, and is usually analyzed in relation to ventilation, which defines a dyspnoea threshold and a dyspnoea/ventilation slope. Inhaled bronchodilators, oral morphine, continuous (or inspiratory) positive airway pressure or respiratory rehabilitation programmes are able to decrease the dyspnoea/ventilation slope in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, while atenolol and pneumectomy have a deleterious effect. Measurement of dyspnoea in everyday life is feasible using the oxygen cost diagram or the baseline dyspnoea index; these indices are responsive to therapy, e.g. to oral theophylline in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dyspnoea measured at rest is a marker for evaluating the perception of added loads (open scale) or acute bronchoconstriction in normals or patients; in the latter it may also reflect the perception of the degree in baseline ventilatory impairment or that of acute bronchodilation (bipolar visual analogue scale). Some respiratory patients being poor perceivers, methods able to improve the perception of airway obstruction are desirable in these individuals.
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Service de Médecine interne, Hôpital Brugmann, Bruxelles, Belgique.
Yernault
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JC
D004056:Differential Threshold; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D005082:Physical Exertion; D011601:Psychophysics; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012146:Rest
Quantifier la dyspnée.