Dyspnoea, namely a patient's complaint of difficult, disturbing or distressing breathing, is a symptom that prompts physicians to undertake diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in order to identify and correct causative pathophysiological abnormalities. Dyspnoea can become self-perpetuating (a syndrome) when it persists despite mechanistic treatments. It then justifies symptomatic management to alleviate suffering [1, 2]. Above all, dyspnoea is an experience that changes patients’ lives and requires holistic approaches [3]. In this issue of the European Respiratory Journal, Stevens et al. [4], from a group that has achieved outstanding progress in the understanding of dyspnoea [5], spotlight yet another aspect of dyspnoea. They highlight its value as a very generic warning sign of impending doom: in unselected patients admitted to hospital, the "mere fact" of reporting dyspnoea is associated with an increased risk of hospital mortality. This risk increases with increasing intensity of dyspnoea.

呼吸困难，即患者抱怨呼吸困难、令人不安或令人痛苦的症状，是一种提示医生进行诊断和治疗程序以识别和纠正致病病理生理异常的症状。尽管进行了机械治疗，但呼吸困难仍会持续存在（一种综合征）。然后，它证明了对症管理以减轻痛苦 [1, 2]。最重要的是，呼吸困难是一种改变患者生活的体验，需要采取整体方法[3]。在这个问题上欧洲呼吸杂志，S特文斯 等。[4]，来自一个在理解呼吸困难方面取得突出进展的小组 [5]，聚焦呼吸困难的另一个方面。他们强调了其作为即将到来的厄运的非常通用的警告信号的价值：在未经选择的入院患者中，报告呼吸困难的“仅仅是事实”与增加的住院死亡率风险相关。这种风险随着呼吸困难强度的增加而增加。