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Some patients with COPD report frequent acute exacerbations (AECOPD) of the disease (FE), whereas others suffer them infrequently (IE). Because the current diagnosis of exacerbation relies on patient's perception of increased symptoms (mostly dyspnoea), we hypothesised that dyspnoea perception might be different in COPD patients with FE (≥2 exacerbations or 1 hospitalisation due to AECOPD in the previous year) or IE (≤1 exacerbation in the previous year), AECOPD being defined by the institution antibiotics and/or steroids treatment, or hospital admission.

To test the hypothesis that dyspnoea perception is increased in FE and/or decreased in IE with COPD.

We compared the perception of dyspnoea (Borg scale), mouth occlusion pressure 0.1 s after the onset of inspiration (P_0.1) and ventilatory response to hypercapnia (ΔV_E/ΔP_ETCO₂) in 34 clinically stable COPD patients …