How to prevent and how to treat dyspnea in critically ill patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation.

Purpose Of Review: To summarize current data regarding the prevalence, risk factors, consequences, assessment and treatment of dyspnea in critically ill patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation.

Recent Findings: In intubated patients, dyspnea is frequent, perceived as intense, and associated with unfavorable outcomes such as immediate and unbearable distress (e.g.

Multimodal physiological correlates of dyspnea ratings during breath-holding in healthy humans.

Introduction And Objectives: Dyspnea is associated with fear and intense suffering and is often assessed using visual analog scales (VAS) or numerical rating scales (NRS). However, the physiological correlates of such ratings are not well known. Using the voluntary breath-holding model of induced dyspnea, we studied healthy volunteers to investigate the temporal relationship between dyspnea, the neural drive to breathe assessed in terms of involuntary thoracoabdominal movements (ITMs) and neurovegetative responses.