48 GPN 2017, Vol 3, No 2 Breathing is a normal vital function which is spontaneous, regular, quiet and effortless and reflects the way that the respiratory system functions. Breathing pattern disorders or dysfunctional breathing, historically known as hyperventilation syndrome, are chronic abnormal respiratory patterns in relation to the efficiency of breathing, often resulting in dyspnoea and ...

Apneustic breathing is an abnormal breathing pattern characterized by a prolonged inspiratory time with an endinspiratory pause versus a shorter expiratory time.1 The termination of respiration is considered to be controlled by the pontine respiratory group (PRG). The apneustic breathing pattern is very rare in humans. Patients with autonomic breathing failure have an impaired autonomic control...

Oral breathing superficially dehydrates the airway lumen by decreasing the depth of the sol layer in humans and animals. Conversely, nasal breathing can increase the humidity of inspired air. We compared the effects of short-term oral and nasal breathing on Pth and perceived vocal effort in 20 female subjects randomly assigned to two groups: oral breathing (N = 10, age 21-32 years); nasal breat...

After occurrence of spinal cord injury, it is not known whether the respiratory rhythm generator undergoes plasticity to compensate for respiratory insufficiency. To test this hypothesis, respiratory variables were measured in adult semiaquatic turtles using a pneumotachograph attached to a breathing chamber on a water-filled tank. Turtles breathed room air (2 h) before being challenged with tw...

Dysfunctional breathing is a term describing breathing disorders where chronic changes in breathing pattern result in dyspnoea and other symptoms in the absence or in excess of the magnitude of physiological respiratory or cardiac disease. We reviewed the literature and propose a classification system for the common dysfunctional breathing patterns described. The literature was searched using t...