[Perception of dyspnea in asthmatics--long-term study]

The authors investigated the relationship between perception of dyspnoea and some respiratory parameters (vital capacity - FVC, one-second vital capacity - FEV 1) in 43 patients with bronchial asthma. They followed up the changes of this relationship during repeated examinations within 3 - 60 months following the first examination. They were also interested to find out whether the patients perceive a reduction of the bronchial obstruction after Berotec. The authors provided evidence that: 1. a small proportion of the patients (18.4%) do not report subjective dyspnoea even in case of major obstruction of the respiratory pathways. 2. Another part of asthmatic patients (23.2%) have an increased perception of dyspnoea, i. e. they report a certain degree of dyspnoea when FEV 1 is higher than 85% of the appropriate value. 3. Acute reduction of bronchial obstruction is inadequately perceived by 39.5% of the patients. 4. During repeated assessment the perception of dyspnoea frequently changed markedly in the same patients. These findings justify the conclusion that treatment of asthmatic patients should depend not only on the score of the patient's symptoms but also on objective monitoring of the degree of obstruction in the home environment.