[Ondine's curse with convulsive syncope. Clinical and Doppler ultrasound observations]

In a 31 years old woman with primary alveolar hypoventilation (Ondine's curse) and noctural seizures the arterial blood gases, EEG and blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery were measured before, during and after a phase of apnea terminated by a convulsive syncope. The blood flow velocity abruptly increased to the 2.5 fold of the initial value with the beginning of the convulsions, which is interpreted as a break down of the cerebral autoregulation.