Misdiagnosis of Shortness of breath

Misdiagnosis and Shortness of breath

Heart attack can be over-diagnosed: Although heart attack is often undiagnosed, leading to fatality, it can also be over-diagnosed. People become concerned that a condition is a heart attack, whereas there are various less dangerous possibilities. After all, there are numerous causes of chest pain. Some of the common conditions where a person may become concerned about a possible heart attack include a panic attack (which often has both chest pain and difficulty breathing), and heartburn/reflux type conditions. Nevertheless, chest pain itself can be a potentially life-threatening symptoms, and needs immediate professional attention.

Chronic lung diseases hard to diagnose: Some of the chronic lung diseases are difficult to diagnose. Even the well-knowns conditions such as asthma or lung cancer often fail to be diagnosed early. Some of the chronic lung diseases with diagnostic difficulties include asthma (perhaps surprisingly), COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, mesothelioma, smoker's cough, AIDS-related respiratory conditions (see AIDS), chronic pneumonia, and other respiratory diseases. Rare possibilities include diseases like psittacosis (bird-related lung infection). See other types of chronic lung diseases.

Silent attack in diabetics: Heart disease is the leading cause of death among diabetics. Patients with type 2 diabetes above the age of 60-65 years are susceptible to silent heart attacks.Diabetes being a multi systemic disorder also affects the nerves causing autonomic neuropathy hence making the heart attack painless.Diabetics who are smokers and have increased blood pressure are more prone for silent attacks and hence these group of patients must undergo screening tests like a treadmill stress test.Some of the symptoms that patients can experience includes mild discomfort in the chest,jaw or arms which is relieved on taking rest,shortness of breath and tiredness. Some of the investigations in addition to a good clinical history that need to be done include an electrocardiogram,estimation of the cardiac enzymes.

Pulmonary embolism- medical emergency: Pulmonary embolism is a common and potentially lethal disease; unfortunately, the diagnosis is often missed because patients with pulmonary embolism present with non-specific signs and symptoms. If left untreated, approximately one third of patients who survive an initial pulmonary embolism subsequently die from a future embolic episode. Most patients succumb to pulmonary embolism within the first few hours of the event. In patients who survive, recurrent embolism and death can be prevented with prompt diagnosis and therapy. In hospitalized elderly patients, pulmonary embolism is commonly missed and often is the cause of death. Most patients treated with anticoagulants do not develop long-term sequelae upon follow-up evaluation.

Severe asthma is a medical emergency: Severe asthma is a life threatening condition that is resistant to standard treatment and requires intensive medication to overcome the obstruction to the air passages. Studies suggest that asthma is often underdiagnosed. In elderly patients, diseases such as bronchitis or emphysema are relatively common. Proper diagnosis in these patients can be further complicated by the difficulty some older people have performing pulmonary function tests. However, it is important to determine the extent of reversibility of the airflow obstruction. In children younger than age 5, the most common cause of asthmatic symptoms is a viral upper respiratory tract infection.

Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis non specific presentation: Cryptogenic fibrosing alveoloitis is a chronic lung disease occurring due to the inflammation of the alveoli. The aetiology and pathogenesis are not known. The commonest symptoms are shortness of breath and dry cough. Extra pulmonary features such as muscle pain, arthralgia and skin rashes may also occur. Due to its non specific nature of presentation it maybe misdiagnosed as heart failure, COPD, sarcoidosis, pulmonary embolism, lymphangitis carcinomatosis and extrinsic allergic alveoloitis.

Pneumothorax or myocardial infarction?: Pneumothorax can occur spontaneously in individuals with known lung disorders such as asthma, COPD, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, but sometimes it can also occur in previously healthy individuals, especially tall thin men who smoke and are between 20 to 40 years of age. The patient presents with chest pain and shortness of breath, tightness in the chest which may mimic myocardial infarction. Truamatic pneumothorax occurs following injuries such as rib fractures, gunshot or stab wounds or certain medical procedures. If untreated pneumothorax may complicate into tension pneumothorax, where air can enter into the pleural cavity but cannot leave and gets trapped . This is a very serious condition and progresses rapidly and proves fatal if not treated quickly. Pneumothorax can heal on its own or may require inserting a needle or chest tube into the pleural cavity to relieve the pressure.

More about Misdiagnosis

• Causes of Shortness of breath
• Misdiagnosis Overview
• How Common is Misdiagnosis?
• Over-Diagnosed Diseases
• Under-Diagnosed Diseases
• Types of Misdiagnosis
• Wrong Type Misdiagnosis
• Why Does Misdiagnosis Occur?
• Difficult Diseases to Diagnose
• More premium medical articles ...

 » Next page: DYSPNEA (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)

Rate This Website

What do you think about the features of this website? Take our user survey and have your say:

Website User Survey

Medical Tools & Articles:

Next articles:

• DYSPNEA (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
• ORTHOPNEA (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
• STRIDOR (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
• WHEEZING (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
• SLEEP APNEA (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)

Tools & Services:

• Bookmark this page
• Symptom Search
• Symptom Checker
• Medical Dictionary
• Give your feedback

Medical Articles:

• Disease & Treatments Search
• Misdiagnosis Center
• Full list of interesting articles

Forums & Message Boards

• Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
• I cannot get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for my condition?
• See all the Boards.

Enter your search terms Submit search form
Search The Web Search wrongdiagnosis.com

Common Health Mistakes

Symptom
Checker

Search Specialists by State and City