Breathlessness measurement should be standardised for the level of exertion. Issue 5 (31st May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ekström, Magnus; Elmberg, Viktor; Lindow, Thomas; Wollmer, Per
• Is Part Of: European respiratory journal. Volume 51:Issue 5(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-05-31
• Subjects: Respiratory organs -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Respiration -- Periodicals; 616.2
• DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00486-2018
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0903-1936

Abstract

Beaumont et al. [1] and Schultz et al . [2] should be commended for evaluating the impact of inspiratory muscle training on clinically relevant outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Chronic breathlessness [3] is a cardinal symptom in people with cardiopulmonary disease and an essential end-point for trials and clinical care. As discussed in one of the papers [1], there were limitations in that breathlessness was not measured at a standardised level of exertion. This limitation is commonly encountered in clinical trials and warrants wider attention. Measurement of breathlessness should be standardised for level of exertion to obtain unbiased results and to evaluate the effect of medical interventions for symptom relief http://ow.ly/bBB730j36qh