Symptoms: breathlessness

PH3749 / 8878

OpenSAFELY

Jan 26, 2026

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OpenCodelists Phenotype

  1. Overview

    Codelist ID
    opensafely/symptoms-breathlessness-new
    Version ID
    5aee78ee
    Coding System
    SNOMED CT codes
    Collections
    OpenCodelistPhenotype Library
    Tags
    No data

  2. Definition

    This codelist was taken from OpenCodelists, created by OpenSAFELY. We recommend viewing this Phenotype on the OpenCodelist website to view the most recent version.

    Code list aiming to identify individuals consulting complaining of being short of breath.

    © University of Oxford for the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science 2025. This work may be copied freely for non-commercial research and study.

  3. Methodology

    Identified from intial search terms outside of OpenCodelists: "breathless" "short of breath" "dyspnoea" "dyspnea" "sob" "gasping" "orthopnoea" "orthopnea" "tachypnea" "tachypnoea" "respiratory"

    Clearly irrelevant codes excluded (with review by a second clinician)

    Candidate codelist uploaded to OpenCodelists for review of candidate codes.

    Specifically excluded tacypnoea as suggests increased breath rate, but not necessarily subjective sensation of breathlessness (e.g., could be increased resp rate as a reaction to pain or acidosis). Did not exclude signs of difficulty breathing (e.g., intercostal recession). Excluded ARDS, but retained respiratory distress.

  4. References

    Source Reference

    https://www.opencodelists.org/codelist/opensafely/symptoms-breathlessness-new/5aee78ee

  5. Clinical Codelist

  6. API

    To Export Phenotype Details:

    FormatAPI
    JSON site_root/api/v1/phenotypes/PH3749/version/8878/detail/?format=json
    R Package

    # Download here

    library(ConceptLibraryClient)


    # Connect to API

    client = ConceptLibraryClient::Connection$new(public=TRUE)


    # Get details of Phenotype

    phenotype_details = client$phenotypes$get_detail(
     'PH3749',
     version_id=8878
    )

    Py Package

    # Download here

    from pyconceptlibraryclient import Client


    # Connect to API

    client = Client(public=True)


    # Get details of Phenotype

    phenotype_detail = client.phenotypes.get_detail(
     'PH3749',
     version_id=8878
    )

    To Export Phenotype Code List:

    FormatAPI
    JSON site_root/api/v1/phenotypes/PH3749/version/8878/export/codes/?format=json
    R Package

    # Download here

    library(ConceptLibraryClient)


    # Connect to API

    client = ConceptLibraryClient::Connection$new(public=TRUE)


    # Get codelist of Phenotype

    phenotype_codelist = client$phenotypes$get_codelist(
     'PH3749',
     version_id=8878
    )

    Py Package

    # Download here

    from pyconceptlibraryclient import Client


    # Connect to API

    client = Client(public=True)


    # Get codelist of Phenotype

    phenotype_codelist = client.phenotypes.get_codelist(
     'PH3749',
     version_id=8878
    )

  7. Version History

    Version IDNameOwnerPublish date
    Symptoms: breathlessness ieuan.scanlon2026-01-26 23:32
    8877 Symptoms: breathlessness ieuan.scanlon2026-01-26 23:32