부산대학교 도서관

Objective. Dyspnea is one of the most refractory symptoms in advanced cancer patients and severely diminishes the quality of life. The management of dyspnea requires interprofessional collaboration, and the ability to predict dyspnea would be useful for developing care plans. The purpose of this study was to investigate predictive factors of dyspnea at rest in the last week of life. Methods. We conducted a retrospective medical chart review of patients with a diagnosis of lung cancer treated at the Department of Respiratory Medicine and Medical Oncology, Gifu Municipal Hospital, Japan between 2011 and 2012. We first performed a univariate analysis to assess the relationships between dyspnea at rest and various medico-psycho-social factors at the completion of anti-cancer treatment. We then used a forward stepwise multiple regression analysis to investigate these factors. Results. Ninety-six eligible patients were identified. The rate of dyspnea at rest was 57%. The univariate analysis revealed both pleural effusion and heart disease to be significantly correlated with dyspnea at rest, while the multiple regression analysis demonstrated cough, pleural effusion and heart disease to be significant predictive factors. Conclusions. Dyspnea at rest was common among our study subjects and may be associated with cough, pleural effusion and heart disease.