​Symptoms and Signs – Differential Diagnosis of Dyspnea
• Upper airway obstruction: trauma, neoplasm, epiglottitis, laryngeal edema, tongue retraction, laryngospasm, abductor paralysis of vocal cords, aspiration of foreign body
• Thyrotoxicosis, myxedema
• Space-occupying lesions: neoplasm, large hiatal hernia, pleural effusions
• Sepsis
• Pulmonary vascular congestion
• Pulmonary infection: pneumonia, abscess, empyema, TB, bronchiectasis
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Pulmonary embolism/infarction
• Psychoneurosis
• Pregnancy
• Pneumothorax, hemothorax, pleural effusion
• Pneumoconioses: silicosis, berylliosis, others
• Parenchymal lung disease
• Neurologic dysfunction: Guillain-Barré syndrome, botulism, polio, spinal cord injury
• Metabolic abnormalities: uremia, hepatic coma, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)
• Mesothelioma
• Lung resection
• Lower airway obstruction: neoplasm, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, aspiration of foreign body
• Interstitial pulmonary disease: sarcoidosis, collagen-vascular diseases, desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP), Hamman- Rich pneumonitis, others
• Inhalation of toxins
• Hematologic: anemia, polycythemia, hemoglobinopathies
• Disease of chest wall: severe kyphoscoliosis, fractured ribs, sternal compression, morbid obesity
• Diaphragmatic paralysis
• Diaphragmatic compression caused by abdominal distention, subphrenic abscess, ascites
• Cholinergic drug intoxication
• Cardiac disease: arteriosclerotic heart disease (ASHD), valvular lesions, cardiac dysrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, pericardial effusion, cardiac shunts
• Carcinoid syndrome
• Atelectasis