[Cheyne-Stokes respiration in adults]

Cheyne-Stokes respiration is a respiratory dysrhythmia which is encountered frequently in pathological situations as well as in certain physiological situations. Observed in antiquity it is only recently that the pathophysiological mechanisms have been more precisely understood. For a long while there has been controversy as to whether the origin is primarily circulatory or neurological. The value of Cheyne-Stokes respiration as a clinical sign should be defined in relation to the clinical situation in which it arises. It should be regarded as a sign of instability of respiratory control occurring physiologically in sleep and pathologically in certain diseases.