von Leupoldt A, Petersen S, Scheuchl S, Füllekrug K, Gerwin C, Reer R, Ziegler M, Braumann K M, Dahme B
Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
G Ital Med Lav Ergon. 2006 Jul-Sep;28(3 Suppl 2):83-8.
Verbal descriptors of dyspnea have been suggested as being useful in providing information on the underlying pathophysiology. However, little is known about the reliability of these descriptors. The present study examined the reliability of a German language list of respiratory symptom descriptors and studied the association of these descriptors with the intensity and unpleasantness of perceived dyspnea. Fourteen healthy volunteers performed cycle-ergometer exercise and voluntary breath-holding during which they rated the perceived intensity (VAS-I) and unpleasantness (VAS-U) of dyspnea on visual analog scales. Following this, they judged their sensations of dyspnea using the list of symptom descriptors. Both conditions were repeated in reverse order on a subsequent occasion 10 days apart. Ventilatory measures, heart rate, blood lactate, VAS-I and VAS-U during cycle-exercise as well as breath-holding time, VAS-I and VAS-U during breath-holding showed no differences between both occasions. Separate hierarchical cluster analyses identified four clusters of verbal descriptors of dyspnea which were widely comparable between both occasions: effort, speed, obstruction and suffocation. Separate multidimensional scaling analyses (MDS) confirmed these four clusters for each occasion. On both days, perceived unpleasantness of dyspnea was correlated with all four clusters during cycle-exercise, while perceived intensity showed only correlations with effort or speed, respectively. No such correlations were obtained for breath-holding. The results suggest that separable clusters of German language descriptors of dyspnea are reliably used by healthy volunteers. The obtained clusters are widely comparable to previously described clusters in other languages and are differently related to the intensity and unpleasantness of perceived dyspnea.
呼吸困难的语言描述已被认为有助于提供潜在病理生理学方面的信息。然而，对于这些描述的可靠性知之甚少。本研究检验了一份德语呼吸症状描述清单的可靠性，并研究了这些描述与感知到的呼吸困难强度和不适感之间的关联。14名健康志愿者进行了蹬车测力计运动和自愿屏气，期间他们在视觉模拟量表上对感知到的呼吸困难强度（VAS-I）和不适感（VAS-U）进行评分。在此之后，他们使用症状描述清单判断自己的呼吸困难感觉。两种情况在间隔10天的后续场合以相反顺序重复进行。蹬车运动期间的通气测量、心率、血乳酸、VAS-I和VAS-U以及屏气期间的屏气时间、VAS-I和VAS-U在两次场合之间均无差异。单独的层次聚类分析确定了四个呼吸困难语言描述类别，在两次场合之间具有广泛的可比性：用力、速度、阻塞和窒息感。单独的多维标度分析（MDS）在每次场合都证实了这四个类别。在两天中，蹬车运动期间感知到的呼吸困难不适感与所有四个类别均相关，而感知到的强度仅分别与用力或速度相关。屏气时未获得此类相关性。结果表明，健康志愿者能够可靠地使用德语中可区分的呼吸困难描述类别。所获得的类别与其他语言中先前描述的类别具有广泛的可比性，并且与感知到的呼吸困难强度和不适感有不同的关联。
