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Breathlessness - Background information
What is it?
- Breathlessness is the distressing sensation of a deficit between the body's demand for breathing and the ability of the respiratory system to satisfy that demand.
- Breathlessness can be classified by its speed of onset as:
- Acute breathlessness — when it develops over minutes, hours, or days.
- Chronic breathlessness — when it develops over weeks or months.
[Lane, 2003]
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