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.
Wolf
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Totts Gap Medical Research Laboratories, Bangor, PA 18013.
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*