Aziz Gumus, Halit Cinarka, Servet Kayhan, Murtaza Emre Durakoglugil, Erkan Cure, Muge Hazıroglu, Gokhan Kandemir and Unal Sahin
Chronic dyspnea is a frequent cause of applications to pulmonology clinics. Cardiopulmonary diseases represent the most frequent etiological causes of dyspnea. However, studies on this subject are limited. The purpose of this study is to determine the etiological causes in patients who admitted to outpatient clinic with the complaint of chronic dyspnea via specific diagnostic procedures. This prospectively planned study was performed with patients referred to chest disease clinic of Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Turkey, between 1 July 2012 and 31 May 2013. Patients with a history of shortness of breath that was ongoing more than 1 month were included to study. Causes of dyspnea were investigated by using a 3-stage diagnostic procedure. Four hundred seventy-one patients were enrolled. Specific etiology of dyspnea was identified in 462 patients. The other nine patients could not be diagnosed. Respiratory disease was determined in 101 (22%) patients and non-respiratory disease was found in 361 (78%). Non-respiratory reasons of chronic dyspnea were identified as cardiac disease in 184 (51%), psychiatric diseases in 142 (39%) and other causes in 35 (10%) individuals. The etiology was considerably different between male and female groups. The most common cause of chronic dyspnea was found as respiratory disease (43%) in male group and cardiovascular disease (45%) in female group.
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