[Dyspnea symptoms in coalminers].

One of the authors observed an excess of dyspnea complaints in coalminers without bronchitis, massive fibrosis or emphysema in different epidemiological surveys. An abnormally high prevalence of dyspnea complaints in coalminers has also been reported by other investigators in different countries. It seems therefore necessary to study whether the type of complaints observed in our country can be validated by appropriate functional investigations. A research on this problem is in progress in our laboratory. In this preliminary publication a review of the literature concerning the mechanisms of dyspnea is presented. Such a study was necessary in order to make an adequate choice of the functional measurements usable for our validation study.