Clinics in chest medicine
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Clinics in chest medicine · Dec 1994
Review Case ReportsAssessment of ventilatory function in patients with neuromuscular disease.
In early phases of neuromuscular disease, patients are either free of respiratory symptoms or have exertional dyspnea not explained by obvious obstructive or restrictive lung disease. Physical examination may be negative because generalized muscle weakness does not correlate with the degree of respiratory muscle involvement. When the diaphragm is involved, one may detect the absence of outward excursion during inspiration or even paradoxic inward inspiratory movement of the abdomen on one side. ⋯ It is important to be aware that overt ventilatory failure can occur abruptly and that measurement of arterial blood gas composition is not a reliable indicator of this danger. Therefore, it is critically important to heed clinical phenomena, such as increasing dyspnea and tachypnea, and symptoms of sleep disturbance, such as morning headache and daytime somnolence. Physicians should make serial measurements of VC and respiratory muscle strength in patients considered to be at risk for further deterioration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)