Tachypnea

Tachypnea, rapid breathing, not accompanied by its deepening. T. represents a form of dyspnea, which occurs mainly in functional nervous diseases (hysteria), but also partly in diseases of the heart, endocrine apparatus, and intoxications. Superficial and rapid breathing is also characteristic for painful processes in the chest or abdominal cavity. Experimentally, T. can be caused by heating the blood in the carotid arteries. In hysterical T., the number of breaths most often reaches 60 per minute, but sometimes reaches 120 and even 150 per minute. The absence of cyanosis and the low position of the patient in bed aid in diagnosis. Sometimes symptoms of tetany (Chvostek, Trousseau) develop secondarily on the basis of hyperventilation with excessive excretion of carbon dioxide and subsequent alkalosis. Hysterical T. may be combined with other nervous disorders of breathing (sighing respiration and irregular arrhythmic breathing). The greatest diagnostic interest is represented by the combination of hysterical T. with compensated heart defects. In such cases, it is often difficult to separate the nervous component from the cardiac one. Sometimes T. is a result of hysteria, in other cases, especially in combination with sighing respiration, it serves as an early sign of impending decompensation. Lit.-see lit. to article Dyspnea.