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With paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea specifically, it is felt while sleeping and causes a person to wake up after about 1 to 2 hours of sleep. [ 3 ] More serious forms of dyspnea can be identified through accompanying findings, such as low blood pressure, decreased respiratory rate, altered mental status, hypoxia, cyanosis, stridor, or unstable ...
The former refers to the complete cessation of breathing, while respiratory failure is the inability to provide adequate ventilation for the body's requirements. Without intervention, both may lead to decreased oxygen in the blood ( hypoxemia ), elevated carbon dioxide level in the blood ( hypercapnia ), inadequate oxygen perfusion to tissue ...
[3] [4] Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are many circumstances that can induce asphyxia, all of which are characterized by the inability of a person to acquire sufficient oxygen through breathing for an extended period of time. Asphyxia can cause coma or death.
At worst, central sleep apnea may cause sudden death. Short of death, drops in blood oxygen may trigger seizures , even in the absence of epilepsy . In people with epilepsy, the hypoxia caused by apnea may trigger seizures that had previously been well controlled by medications. [ 113 ]
Toxic gases, by contrast, cause death by other mechanisms, such as competing with oxygen on the cellular level (e.g. carbon monoxide) or directly damaging the respiratory system (e.g. phosgene). Far smaller quantities of these are deadly. Notable examples of asphyxiant gases are methane, [1] nitrogen, argon, helium, butane and propane.
The knee-on-stomach position compresses the chest, making it difficult for the person on the bottom to breathe.. Positional asphyxia, also known as postural asphyxia, is a form of asphyxia which occurs when someone's position prevents the person from breathing adequately.
Hypercapnia normally triggers a reflex which increases breathing and access to oxygen (O 2), such as arousal and turning the head during sleep. A failure of this reflex can be fatal, for example as a contributory factor in sudden infant death syndrome. [21]
By definition it causes an increased concentration of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) and respiratory acidosis. Hypoventilation is not synonymous with respiratory arrest, in which breathing ceases entirely and death occurs within minutes due to hypoxia and leads rapidly into complete anoxia, although both are medical emergencies. Hypoventilation ...