The analysis of clinical cases of patients with the shortness of breath syndrome

The article presents the analysis of the diagnostic problems in determining the causes of shortness of breath associated with anxiety. By the example of two clinical cases, the authors elucidated typical diagnostic mistakes such as "the effect of inappropriate early diagnostic focus" and "the negative effect of the narrow specialization". The authors discussed possible origination of the diagnostic problems in the context of close neurophysiological links between the cerebral structures involved in perception of shortness of breath and anxiety based on the results of state of the art brain imaging studies.