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The
Feeble Breathers
These are patients with Rett
syndrome who have the habit of very shallow breathing. The
movements of the chest and the abdomen are so small that sometimes
parents and carers do not notice it at all and may be mistaken
that the Rett person has stopped breathing all together. On
certain occasions, the Rett person would indeed stop breathing,
but briefly, a condition known as Central Apnoea. The types
of abnormal breathing in this category are: shallow breathing,
rapid shallow breathing and central apnoea. It often requires
monitoring with the NeuroScope™ to distinguish these types
of breathing. The medical consequences of feeble breathing
are: accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood, which makes
the brainstem very excitable. The oxygen supply to the body
is adequate most of the time, but bouts of central apnoea
can quickly change this and the Rett person becomes cyanosed
(turns blue in the face starting with the lips) due to lack
of oxygen. Caution must be exercised when giving medications
to feeble breathers making sure that the medicine does not
aggravate the situation by further depressing the already
feeble
breathing. Fortunately feeble breathers can tolerate general
anaesthetics as long as drugs that depress respiration are
not given to the patient, not even as a pre-medication to
the anaesthesia. We are investigating whether Rett girls who
are feeble breathers may respond to certain drugs known to
stimulate breathing. (Click
here to see a Rett girl having central apnoea).
The
graphs & Videos were recorded using the NeuroScope™ system
Click
here to see graph of brainstem storm in Feeble breathing.
Click
here to see the video of Brainstem storm.
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