Breathlessness measurement should be standardised for the level of exertion

Beaumont et al. [1] and Schultz et al. [2] should be commended for evaluating the impact of inspiratory muscle training on clinically relevant outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Chronic breathlessness [3] is a cardinal symptom in people with cardiopulmonary disease and an essential end-point for trials and clinical care. As discussed in one of the papers [1], there were limitations in that breathlessness was not measured at a standardised level of exertion. This limitation is commonly encountered in clinical trials and warrants wider attention.

Source: European Respiratory Journal - May 30, 2018 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Ekström, M., Elmberg, V., Lindow, T., Wollmer, P. Tags: Original Articles: Correspondence Source Type: research