Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Exertional dyspnea
Exertional breathlessness
HP:0002875
What it means
Perceived difficulty to breathe that occurs with exercise or exertion and improves with rest.
Rare diseases that can present with this50
Very common80–99%
5Common30–79%
33- Abnormal origin of right or left pulmonary artery from the aorta
- Acute monoblastic/monocytic leukemia
- Acute promyelocytic leukemia
- Asbestos intoxication
- Atrial septal defect, coronary sinus type
- Atrial septal defect, ostium primum type
- Atrial septal defect, ostium secundum type
- Atrial septal defect, sinus venosus type
- Autosomal recessive methemoglobinemia
- Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension
- Congenital total pulmonary venous return anomaly
- Coronary arterial fistula
- DNA2-related mitochondrial DNA deletion syndrome
- Eisenmenger syndrome
- Familial aortic dissection
- Familial atrial myxoma
- Familial isolated dilated cardiomyopathy
- Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection
- Fixed subaortic stenosis
- Glycogen storage disease due to acid maltase deficiency
- Glycogen storage disease with severe cardiomyopathy due to glycogenin deficiency
- Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Laryngeal neuroendocrine tumor
- Laubry-Pezzi syndrome
- Myelodysplastic neoplasm with increased blasts
- Non-progressive predominantly posterior cavitating leukoencephalopathy with peripheral neuropathy
- Partial atrioventricular septal defect
- Peripartum cardiomyopathy
- Pneumocystosis
- Polymyositis
- Pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis
- Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica
Sometimes5–29%
10- Aortic arch interruption
- Autosomal dominant progressive external ophthalmoplegia
- Autosomal recessive distal nebulin myopathy
- Glycogen storage disease due to muscle glycogen phosphorylase deficiency
- Interatrial communication
- Medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency
- Postsynaptic congenital myasthenic syndrome
- Primary familial and congenital erythrocytosis
and 2 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Exertional dyspnoea · Shortness of breathing upon physical activity
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.