The laboratory differential diagnosis between cardiac and pulmonary dyspnea

As an emergent attack,dyspnea can be caused by a variety of diseases,therefore,it is difficult and important as to the differential diagnosis in clinical practice.In the past,Physicians identified the cause of dyspnea primarily based on the clinical symptoms,signs and laboratory tests.However,dyspnea often misdiagnosed because the similarity and overlapping of clinical manifestations among many different diseases and lack of specificity for those conventional lab tests.Until recently,B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has emerged as a highly sensitive and specific index to identify heart failure,and has made it reality that rapid and accurate differential diagnosis of dyspnea in the lab.In the last couple of years,the differential diagnosis of dyspnea has been remarkably improved because of the increasing new test reagents,advanced devices and better assay techniques.The present article will review the laboratory differential diagnosis of dyspnea between cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.(Chin J Lab Med,2013,36:498-501) Key words: Dyspnea; Biological markers; Diagnosis; differential; Natriuretic peptide; brain