Review of dyspnoea quantification in the emergency department: Is a rating scale for breathlessness suitable for use as an admission prediction tool?

Author: Saracino, Amanda

Source: Emergency Medicine Australasia, Volume 19, Number 5, October 2007 , pp. 394-404(11)

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Abstract:

Acute shortness of breath is a potential marker of serious cardiopulmonary disease and requires rapid assessment. In our current health-care system, increasing pressure on the ED to limit costs and waiting times has resulted in the development of many clinical decision aids and admission prediction tools designed to assist ED physicians in meeting these demands. However, most of these tools are disease specific, and none are currently available for application to patients presenting to the ED with shortness of breath. Although somewhat limited, current evidence supports the utilization of a simple dyspnoea rating scale, to assist in the streamlining of clinical severity assessments and urgency evaluations, and to potentially provide useful information to facilitate rapid and accurate site-of-care decisions in this setting.

Keywords: dyspnoea; emergency medicine; literature review; patient admission

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-6723.2007.00999.x

Publication date: 2007-10-01