{"title":"Tests to uncover and assess breathlessness: a proposed framework.","authors":"Magnus Ekström","doi":"10.1097/SPC.0000000000000617","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Breathlessness is a common, distressing, and limiting symptom that many people avoid by reducing their activity. This review discusses exertional tests that can be used for uncovering and assessing breathlessness depending on the person's severity of illness, function, the setting, and aim of the assessment.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Standardized exertional tests are useful to uncover 'hidden' breathlessness earlier in people who may have adapted their physical activity to limit their breathing discomfort. In 'more fit' ambulatory people and outpatients, cardiopulmonary exercise testing is the gold standard for assessing symptom severity, underlying conditions, and mechanisms and treatment effects. Among field tests, the 6-min walk test is not useful for assessing breathlessness. Instead, the 3-min step test and walk test are validated for measuring breathlessness change in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In people with more severe illness (who are most often not breathless at rest), reported tests include upper limb exercise or counting numbers aloud, but a valid and useful test for this population is lacking.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>A framework for selecting the most appropriate test to assess breathlessness validly is proposed, and research needs are identified.</p>","PeriodicalId":1,"journal":{"name":"Accounts of Chemical Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":16.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9671589/pdf/","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accounts of Chemical Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/SPC.0000000000000617","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/9/21 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Purpose of review: Breathlessness is a common, distressing, and limiting symptom that many people avoid by reducing their activity. This review discusses exertional tests that can be used for uncovering and assessing breathlessness depending on the person's severity of illness, function, the setting, and aim of the assessment.
Recent findings: Standardized exertional tests are useful to uncover 'hidden' breathlessness earlier in people who may have adapted their physical activity to limit their breathing discomfort. In 'more fit' ambulatory people and outpatients, cardiopulmonary exercise testing is the gold standard for assessing symptom severity, underlying conditions, and mechanisms and treatment effects. Among field tests, the 6-min walk test is not useful for assessing breathlessness. Instead, the 3-min step test and walk test are validated for measuring breathlessness change in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In people with more severe illness (who are most often not breathless at rest), reported tests include upper limb exercise or counting numbers aloud, but a valid and useful test for this population is lacking.
Summary: A framework for selecting the most appropriate test to assess breathlessness validly is proposed, and research needs are identified.
期刊介绍:
Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance.
Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.