Key result
Assessment of acute dyspnoea using a visual analogue scale (VAS) yielded significantly higher scores in patients with heart failure compared to non-heart failure patients (P=0.03).
Why the study?
Does assessment of acute dyspnoea using a visual analogue scale (VAS) help distinguish heart failure from non-heart failure in patients presenting to the ED with acute shortness of breath?
Observational (n=190)
Does assessment of acute dyspnoea using a visual analogue scale (VAS) help distinguish heart failure from non-heart failure in patients presenting to the ED with acute shortness of breath?
A visual analogue scale (VAS) is more useful than descriptors of breathlessness for distinguishing acute heart failure from non-heart failure causes of shortness of breath in the emergency department.
VAS may aid dyspnoea differentiation in the ED; leaves open incremental diagnostic value pending prospective validation.
AIM: To validate a previously developed instrument for measurement of breathlessness in patients with acute heart failure (HF). METHODS AND RESULTS: We tested descriptors of breathlessness among 190 patients seeking care at the emergency department (ED) for acute shortness of breath. Out of 115 patients with confirmed HF, 107 (94%) had dyspnoea as their main symptom. There were no significant differences between those patients with HF and those who were not diagnosed as heart failure (NHF) (n = 75) in the descriptors of breathlessness, although patients with HF scored significantly (P = 0.03) higher on a visual analogue scale (VAS). In addition, they had significantly (P = 0.03) higher breathing frequency than NHF patients and they were significantly (P < 0.001) more likely to be treated with >40 mg furosemide. CONCLUSION: Assessment of acute dyspnoea using a VAS is useful in distinguishing HF from NHF, and may be a more valid approach as compared with using descriptors of intensity of breathlessness in the acute setting.
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Ekman et al. (2011) conducted an observational in Acute shortness of breath / Acute heart failure (n=190). Visual analogue scale (VAS) vs. Descriptors of breathlessness was evaluated on Visual analogue scale (VAS) score (p=0.03). Assessment of acute dyspnoea using a visual analogue scale (VAS) yielded significantly higher scores in patients with heart failure compared to non-heart failure patients (P=0.03).
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