Dyspnea Flashcards
Anaphylaxis cause?
Stridor + soft tissue swelling (facial swelling, angioedema)
Bronchoconstriction (wheeze)
Vasodilation
Acute onset after allergen exposure
Epiglottitis?
Young kids with fever, stridor, drooling, anxiety.
Less typical symptoms in adults
Retropharyngeal abscess?
Often diabetics with infective symptoms like fever.
Neck pain, difficulty turning neck.
Congestive Heart failure?
Exertional dyspnea, orthopnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea.
Displaced apex beat, 3rd heart sound.
CKD?
Patients already on dialysis can have fluid overload if dry weight is set too high, if they have missed dialysis or have been non-compliant to fluid restriction.
Decompensated cirrhosis
Hypoalbuminemia causes accumulation of extravascular fluid, ascites and pulmonary congestion.
May have jaundice, splenomegaly and other stigmata of CLD.
Pulmonary Embolism
Pleuritic chest pain, dyspnea w/wo haemotypsis.
Presentation is often subtle, e.g. unexplained hypoxaemia, tachycardia.
Pneumonia
Dyspnea develops over 1-2 days, tgt with fever, rigours, cough and sometimes pleuritic chest pain.
Exam shows decreased breath sounds + dullness + creps
CXR can show lobar consolidation, patchy infiltrates or blurring of heart or diaphragmatic borders.
COPD
Dyspnea and decreased effort tolerance begins insidiously and progress slowly.
Lung hyperinflation, wheeze, tracheal tug.
Asthma
Apart from wheeze, can also have cough or exertional dyspnea
Cardiac wheeze
Heart failure can present with dyspnea, wheeze and exertional dyspnea, in addition to other findings of fluid overload picture e.g. JVP, pedal edema.
Interstitial lung disease?
Progressive breathlessness with exertional dyspnea, with/wo persistent non-productive cough.
Exam may have fine inspiratory creps w/wo clubbing.
