Correalation between subjective evaluation of dyspnoea and objective clinical signs of respiratory insufficiency in patients with acute dyspnoea

Introduction: Dyspnoea is one of the most frequent symptoms, causing patients (pts) to present to the emergency department (ED) [1]. It is a subjective symptom and for this reason, physicians have a difficult task—to assess dyspnoea objectively along with respiratory failure (RF) signs (respiratory rate (RR) higher than 25 breaths per minute, blood oxygen saturation (SaO2) less than 90%) and determine the underlying primary cause of dyspnoea. Therefore, it is very important to identify the correlation between a subjective symptom—shortness of breath (SOB), as described by the pts—and objective signs of RF [2–4]. Aim: To evaluate acute dyspnoea and compare its severity with clinical signs of RF for pts presenting at the ED. Objectives: 1. To evaluate acute dyspnoea using visual analogy scale (VAS) and its correlation with objective RF parameters, such as RR, SaO2, heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SPB) and lung auscultation parameters. 2. To determine the most common reasons for dyspnea at the ED. Methods: We evaluated 147 pts with acute dyspnoea who presented to the ED at the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Objective symptoms of RF that were evaluated included RR, SaO2, HR, SBP and lung auscultation parameters. Pts had to respond to the question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how bad is your SOB, with score 1 being weak SOB and score 10—the worst SOB you could ever imagine?” according to the use of VAS methodology. In our statistical analysis P