This issue includes a study (Haneef et al. 2008) of simulated ocular compression (OC) by physicians who “routinely” performed OC during EEG examinations when syncopal episodes including breath-holding spells were suspected. The authors found that though each of those three physicians exerted a different range of pressure on a sphygmomanometer cuff when asked to use their thumbs as if the inflat...

Breath holding was used as the basis of a simple test of respiratory chemosensitivity. Breath holding was begun at selected degrees of hypercapnia produced by CO2 rebreathing. In 16 healthy control subjects there was a linear regression of the log of breath-holding time on the PCO2 at the start of breath holding. Breath-holding time (BHT) and the slope of a log BHT/Pco2 plot were closely correl...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In the past, functional MR imaging techniques have been used successfully to determine cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to various stimuli, complementing the arsenal of functional brain investigations feasible with MR imaging. While previous studies have focused on blood oxygenation changes under vasodilatory stress, the aim of this study was to assess regional cerebral b...

Introduction: In this study, the patients diagnosed with breath holding spell (BHS) or anoxic epileptic seizures and initiated at least one out of iron piracetam levetiracetam therapies were evaluated. Material Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 194 BHS patients. Iron therapy was in case deficiency anemia ferritin values under 12 ng/dl even if there no anemia. The having anemia, low administ...

Introduction. The aim of the study was to compare the breath-holding test and single-breath carbon dioxide test in evaluation of the peripheral chemoreflex sensitivity to carbon dioxide in healthy subjects of different age. Methods. The study involved 47 healthy volunteers between ages of 25 and 85 years. All participants were divided into 4 groups according to age: 25 to 44 years (n = 14), 45 ...