Hidden epidemic of the 21st Century

  • 21 February 2020

L. C. Lum - Hidden epidemic of the 21st CenturyStill a great read today.

OVER THE PAST decade, some 700 cases of the hyperventilation syndrome have been studied in the respiratory physiology department of Papworth Hospital. 82 per cent had no detectable pathology. The remainder had well documented pathological states, but their symptoms were largely or entirely related to overbreathing. This survey does not include a
very considerable number of patients in whom hyperventilation was present, but who also had organic disease of sufficient severity to produce symptoms; e.g. cardiac infarction.

We have paid particular attention to the cardiological aspects of this syndrome, which shows up in medical clinics under many other guises; largely because these cases have been through the double sieve of cardiological and respiratory physiological investigation.

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Dr L Claud Lum 
Emeritus Chest Physician Papworth Hospital UK

Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vol. 19, pp. 375 to 383. Pergamon Press, 1975. Printed in Great Britain

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