Clinical Estimation of Breathlessness
Cohen, B.M.
Journal of the Medical Society of New Jersey 61: 23-26
1964
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7524 PMID: 14105281 Document Number: 8486
1. Three hundred patients with a variety of pulmonary diseases have been classified on the basis of certain ventilation studies and the criteria (Fletcher) of the British Medical Research Council for grading the severity of dyspnea. 2. Although there was a widespread overlap for each ventilation measurement, there was a progressive deterioration of forced vital capacity, FEV and maximal voluntary ventilation with increasing grades of breathlessness. Patients in Grades 1 and 2 tended to be younger and had better average measurements than those in Grades 3, 4, and 5. The signal difference was in the forced vital capacity. All 101 patients with figures for this test below 70 per cent of the predicted value fell into Grades 3 to 5, inclusive, of the classification of dyspnea. This classification was not as helpful in separating patients with reduced maximal voluntary ventilation figures or forced expiratory volumes for the first second, 19.9 per cent and 12.7 per cent, respectively. 3. This study suggests the value of precision in questioning the patient with shortness of breath as a means of estimating ventilation disability.
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