ABSTRACT

The acute onset of breathlessness, immediate or within hours, is usually an urgent or emergent medical problem that requires prompt evaluation and treatment. It may represent the major manifestation of a life-threatening illness or injury that can be accompanied by a 4‘feeling of impending doom.” Generally, there are only a limited number of conditions that cause acute dyspnea (Table 3). Congestive heart failure (26%), asthma (25%), and COPD (15%) accounted for the three leading causes of acute dyspnea in the emergency department of one community hospital.