[Flow rates and pulmonary volumes in athetosis patients with speech disorders]

In 9 controls and in 10 athetosic subjects, authors performed a pneumotachographic registering of ventilation under rest conditions for each phase and determined : the phase duration, the delay between the onset of the phase and the moment where the maximal output occurs, the output reached at the first 1/10th of second after phase change. These determinations were performed in 189 cycles in the controls and in 257 cycles in the athetosic subjects. For each cycle, ventilation and frequency reported to one minute were reckoned, and the relation was established between the duration of expiration and inspiration and between the time necessary for the output to reach its maximal level and the phase duration. The hereafter mentioned facts were noted : in the athetosic subjects there exists a tachypnea for normal ventilation figures, a proportional lengthening in the expiration duration with a reduced mean output; in the beginning of the phase, the output gets increased more rapidly and reaches a higher level than in the controls; then a slow and irregular decrease occurs. Inspiration is rapid and regular. The most perturbed expiration is to be found in the athetosic subjects who exhibit the most severe vocal disorders. These expiratory anomalies appear to be bound with a poor thoracic and laryngeal motor controlling during the passive phase of the respiration, whereas the automatic inspiratory movement takes place in a normal mood.