Symptoms and signs of respiratory disease

The primary symptoms of respiratory disease are breathlessness, chest pain, wheeze, cough and associated sputum production. However, non-respiratory conditions including anaemia and metabolic acidosis can cause breathlessness, and lung diseases can cause distant symptoms, for example the non-metastatic manifestations of lung cancer. A comprehensive, systematic approach to history-taking, in which the time-course, nature and severity of individual symptoms are explored, followed by a thorough analysis of clinical signs has been demonstrated to be the most important factor in establishing the cause of respiratory disease, enabling most clinicians to form a differential diagnosis and proceed to investigations that will confirm the diagnosis and appropriate therapy. This contribution focuses on symptoms, signs and aspects of the history and examination that are directly relevant to the respiratory system.