Most cases of shortness of breath are due to heart or lung conditions. Your heart and lungs are involved in transporting oxygen to your tissues and removing carbon dioxide, and problems with either of these processes affect your breathing.
Shortness of breath is often a symptom of heart and lung problems. But it can also be a sign of other conditions like asthma, allergies or anxiety. Intense exercise or having a cold can also make you feel breathless.
Shortness of breath does not equal saturation (SaO2%)
In other words, your level of dyspnea, or air hunger, does not always correlate with your oxygen saturation. This means that you can be short of breath, even extremely short of breath, even in the presence of normal oxygen saturation.
Commonly these include blood tests, imaging tests such as a chest X-ray or CT scan, lung function tests or an echocardiogram.
“Shortness of breath can be mild to very severe. The symptoms could start with a mild cough and shortness of breath with exertion and exercise, and then it progresses to be shortness of breath while at rest,” Dr. Gupta says.
Sudden onset of shortness of breath may indicate something quite serious requiring immediate medical attention, such as a heart attack, a blood clot in the lungs or a problem with the aorta.
Or if your heart isn't working as well as it should, this could cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Other conditions, including anxiety, asthma, a blood clot in the lungs, cancer, or a chest infection like pneumonia, can also lead to shortness of breath.
Often, the first thing a doctor, nurse, or emergency medical technician will do is give you extra oxygen (called oxygen therapy). You get it through tubes in your nose or windpipe, or through a mask placed over your nose and mouth. This helps get more oxygen into your lungs and bloodstream.
People can experience shortness of breath while walking for a number of reasons. Sometimes, this occurs as a result of conditions such as anxiety, asthma, or obesity. Less commonly, shortness of breath signals a more serious underlying medical condition.
"Chest pain, rapid heartbeat and breathlessness may result when an insufficient amount of blood reaches the heart muscle," says Tung. (See "Symptoms" below.) One of the key distinctions between the two is that a heart attack often develops during physical exertion, whereas a panic attack can occur at rest.
How is shortness of breath evaluated? Apart from taking a detailed clinical history and physical examination the primary methods of evaluating shortness of breath are through an electrocardiogram (ECG) and a chest X-ray.
There are a number of conventional diagnostic tests we may conduct to determine the cause of your shortness of breath. These tests can include: Blood tests: Blood tests will measure your blood oxygen saturation and blood gases. Chest X-rays: A chest X-ray will evaluate your lung condition.
Simply put, yes, some lung problems can be detected by blood tests, but it is mainly regarded as supplemental. While some people assume that respiratory health assessment is exclusively done through x-ray, spirometry, and CT-scan, other lab tests are crucial in diagnosing diseases.
Medications that can precipitate respiratory impairment include ACE inhibitors, NSAIDs, anticonvulsants, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, cholinergics, antihypertensives, antibiotics, antifungals, antimicrobials, antiretrovirals, digoxin, interferon, and chemotherapy agents.
The EMS providers initiate treatment. Supplemental oxygen is administered and an intravenous line is established. An albuterol breathing treatment is administered via nebulizer and the patient indicates that it is helping.
When your body experiences anxiety, it goes into fight-or-flight mode to protect itself from an immediate threat. It releases adrenaline, a hormone that pumps blood to your muscles and causes your body temperature to rise. It also sends most of your oxygen to your muscles, which is why you may feel short of breath.
Extra fat on your neck, chest, or across your abdomen can make it difficult to breathe deeply and may produce hormones that affect your body's breathing patterns.
Even if you consider yourself "in shape," it's still normal to feel out of breath after climbing stairs. That's because you're transitioning from a resting state to a high-intensity exercise quickly, and your body needs more oxygen to deliver to your muscles (hence why you start breathing heavily).