[Neurological and electromyographic data in acute pneumonias]

The report contains an analysis of EMG studies of the main and auxilliary respiratory muscles in 47 patients with acute pneumonia. It was shown that there is a certain correlation between the character of the EMG, the severity and localization of pneumonia from the prevalent lesion of the different parts of the nervous system. In the pathogenesis of the depicted changes of bioelectrical activity in the respiratory muscles in acute pneumonia a certain significance can be allocated to changes in the functional state of the segmentary apparatus of the spinal cord, innervating the respiratory muscles. This in its turn is related to disorders in the suprasegmental influences stemming from the respiratory center, disturbances of the corticospinal, reticulo-spinal connections with pathological interoreceptive irritation from the affected lungs. It was also shown that insufficiency of the functional state of respiratory muscles, revealed both clinically and electromiographically, may lead to a secondary lung hypo-ventilation and be the reason for future development of hypoxic states.