Diaphragmatic spasm: a neglected cause of dyspnoea and chest pain.
The study included 17 patients, 12 women and 5 men, with a recurrent symptom complex involving chest pain and dyspnoea characterized by inability to get a full breath. Some attacks had subsided spontaneously. Others had lasted hours or days. When examined by fluoroscopy during an attack, each subject was found to have a nearly maximally contracted (flat) diaphragm. In some of them the attack was promptly interrupted by a small intravenous injection of sodium amytal. In others it could be aborted by a conscious effort at full expiration. The syndrome associated with diaphragmatic spasm is discussed in comparison with other noncardiac sources of chest pain and dyspnoea.
Totts Gap Medical Research Laboratories, Bangor, PA 18013.
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Wolf
D000328:Adult; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003964:Diaphragm; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis; D013035:Spasm / Q000150:complications*