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Understanding dyspnoea by its language

¹ Dept of Internal Medicine, Respiratory Disease Section, University of Florence, and ² Fondazione Don C. Gnocchi, Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Pozzolatico, Florence, Italy

CORRESPONDENCE: G. Scano, Dept of Internal Medicine, Section of Clinical Immunology, Allergology and Respiratory Disease, University of Florence, Viale Morgagni 87, 50134 Firenze, Italy. Fax: 39 055412867. E-mail: g.scano@dmi.unifi.it

Keywords: Bronchoconstriction, dyspnoea, verbal descriptors

Received: May 19, 2004
Accepted November 12, 2004

ABSTRACT

Dyspnoea is a general term used to characterise a range of qualitatively distinct descriptors that vary in intensity. Based on the hypothesis that various qualities of respiratory discomfort result from different pathophysiological abnormalities, language could help to define one or more of the abnormalities responsible for breathing discomfort. The use of descriptors of dyspnoea may contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of dyspnoea, and assist in identifying or predicting a specific diagnosis. Symptoms that can be reliably discriminated imply different pathophysiological mechanisms, whereas symptoms that cannot be reliably discriminated imply similar pathophysiological mechanisms. Since dyspnoea is a fundamental part of patient's clinical history, physicians should become more fluent in the language of dyspnoea.

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