Dyspnea: an update

Multidisciplinary Focus on: Dyspnea. Edited by / a cura di Giorgio Scano

Abstract

Our understanding of the nature and mechanisms of dyspnea has greatly evolved over the last two centuries. Although the relationship was never form- ally specified, discomfort was always assumed to accompany respiratory muscle activity. Hypotheses and theories of dyspnea thus became synonymous with the factors controlling the extremes of respira- tory muscle activity, with expiratory muscle activity and discomfort now being known to be controlled by the same factors.