[Paroxysmal alveolar hypoventilation syndrome (author's transl)]

The case of a 42-year-old female patient with central disturbance of respiration was reported which, contrary to the previously described forms of central alveolar hypoventilation, could be characterized by paroxysmal-like apnoic conditions without any feeling of suffocation. Clinically, initial cardiopulmonary complications were primary in this central disturbance of respiration. The possibility of isolated apnoic paroxysms as an expression of a true cerebro-organic nature of the attacks was described. In addition, the attempt was made to localize the morphological or functional disturbance at the basis of the observed pathological process in the bulbopontine area of the brain stem on the ventral side of the medulla in the area of the point of exit of the seventh to the twelfth cranial nerves. With anticonvulsive and analeptic treatment, a distinct improvement could be observed in the disease after the cardiopulmonary complications had subsided.