Acute dyspnea in the emergency department: a clinical review.

Acute dyspnea represents one of the most frequent symptoms leading to emergency room evaluation. Its significant prognostic value warrants a careful evaluation. The differential diagnosis of dyspnea is complex due to the lack of specificity and the loose association between its intensity and the severity of the underlying pathological condition. The initial assessment of dyspnea calls for prompt diagnostic evaluation and identification of optimal monitoring strategy and provides information useful to allocate the patient to the most appropriate setting of care. In recent years, accumulating evidence indicated that lung ultrasound, along with echocardiography, represents the first rapid and non-invasive line of assessment that accurately differentiates heart, lung or extra-pulmonary involvement in patients with dyspnea. Moreover, non-invasive respiratory support modalities such as high-flow nasal oxygen and continuous positive airway pressure have aroused major clinical interest, in light of their efficacy and practicality to treat patients with dyspnea requiring ventilatory support, without using invasive mechanical ventilation. This clinical review is focused on the pathophysiology of acute dyspnea, on its clinical presentation and evaluation, including ultrasound-based diagnostic workup, and on available non-invasive modalities of respiratory support that may be required in patients with acute dyspnea secondary or associated with respiratory failure.

Diagnostic Insights from Plethysmographic Alveolar Pressure Assessed during Spontaneous Breathing in COPD Patients.

Since its introduction in the clinical practice, body plethysmography has assisted pneumologists in the diagnosis of respiratory diseases and patients' follow-up, by providing easy assessment of absolute lung volumes and airway resistance. In the last decade, emerging evidence suggested that estimation of alveolar pressure by electronically-compensated plethysmographs may contain information concerning the mechanics of the respiratory system which goes beyond those provided by the simple value of airway resistance or conductance. Indeed, the systematic study of expiratory alveolar pressure-flow loops produced during spontaneous breathing at rest has shown that the marked expansion of expiratory loops in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients mainly reflects the presence of tidal expiratory flow-limitation. The presence of this phenomenon can be accurately predicted on the basis of loop-derived parameters. Finally, we present results suggesting that plethysmographic alveolar pressure may be used to estimate non-invasively intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEPi) in spontaneously breathing patients, a task which previously could be only accomplished by introducing a balloon-tipped catheter in the esophagus.

Tidal expiratory flow limitation induces expiratory looping of the alveolar pressure-flow relation in COPD patients.

During spontaneous breathing at rest, the alveolar pressure (Palv)-flow (V̇) relation exhibits a prominent expiratory loop in many chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Among the possible determinants of the loop, tidal expiratory flow limitation (tEFL) may be the main responsible. To compare the characteristics of the expiratory loop in COPD patients with flow limitation (FL) and without flow limitation (NFL), tEFL was assessed with the negative expiratory pressure technique in stable mild to very severe COPD patients undergoing body plethysmography before and after bronchodilation (BD), an intervention that is able to reduce mechanical heterogeneity, recruitment/derecruitment, and gas trapping but rarely abolishes tEFL. The magnitude of the expiratory loop was indexed by the integral of Palv on V̇ during expiration (Aexp). Before BD, Aexp was 360% greater in FL (n = 35) than in NFL (n = 25) patients (P < 0.001). After BD, Aexp was unchanged in NFL patients (ΔAexp 0%, P = 0.882) and slightly decreased in FL patients who remained FL (n = 32, ΔAexp -17%, P = 0.064). Three FL patients became NFL after BD, and their Aexp decreased markedly (ΔAexp -61%), reaching values similar to those observed in NFL patients at baseline. In conclusion, the greater Aexp measured in FL relative to NFL COPD patients, its relative invariance after BD when flow limitation persists, and its fall when flow limitation is abolished indicate that tEFL is a major determinant of the magnitude of the expiratory loop. Furthermore, Aexp can be used as a predictor of the presence of tEFL.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients spontaneously breathing at rest, tidal expiratory flow limitation is the major determinant of the occurrence of expiratory looping in the plethysmographic flow-alveolar pressure diagram. In these patients the magnitude and the characteristics of the loop can be used as predictors of the presence of tidal expiratory flow limitation.

Plethysmographic Loops: A Window on the Lung Pathophysiology of COPD Patients.

Plethysmographic alveolar pressure-flow (Palv-F) loops contain potentially relevant information about the pathophysiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but no quantitative analysis of these loops during spontaneous breathing has ever been performed. The area of the loop's inspiratory (Ains) and expiratory portion (Aexp), and the difference between the end-expiratory and end-inspiratory alveolar pressure (ΔPalv) were measured in 20 young, 20 elderly healthy subjects, and 130 stable COPD patients. Ains and ΔPalv increased by 55 and 78% from young to elderly subjects, and by 107 and 122% from elderly subjects to COPD patients, reflecting changes in mechanical heterogeneity, lung-units recruitment/derecruitment, and possibly air trapping occurring with aging and/or obstructive disease. Aexp increased by 38% from young to elderly subjects, and by 198% from elderly subjects to COPD patients, consistent with the additional contribution of tidal expiratory flow-limitation, which occurs only in COPD patients and affects Aexp only. In COPD patients, Aexp and ΔPalv showed a significant negative correlation with VC, FEV1, IC, and a significant positive correlation with RV/TLC. The results suggest that the analysis of plethysmographic Palv-F loops provides an insight of the pathophysiological factors, especially tidal expiratory flow-limitation, that affect lung function in COPD patients.