title: CO2 response and pattern of breathing in patients with symptomatic hyperventilation, compared to asthmatic and normal subjects.
abstract: We studied six patients with symptomatic hyperventilation, using new techniques to quantify baseline variability of respiratory variables, and to assess CO2 sensitivity around the control point using a stimulus not detectable by the subject. We compared them with six normal subjects and six patients with mild asthma. Symptomatic hyperventilators had normal mean ventilation and end-tidal carbon dioxide tension (PETCO2) at rest. Asthmatic subjects had higher ventilation and lower PETCO2. Symptomatic hyperventilators had a larger number of sighs and abnormally wide fluctuations in baseline for inspiratory time, expiratory time, and PETCO2. These could not be explained by an abnormal ventilatory response to a transient CO2 input; the transient response near the control point was undoubtedly normal.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Medicine I, St George's Hospital Medical School, London.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hormbrey
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Jacobi
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Saunders
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006985:Hyperventilation / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange; D012119:Respiration; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide