Signs of Respiratory Disease: Breathing Patterns

Abstract

A diverse range of breathing patterns exist which occur in the unaffected and diseased lung. Every breathing pattern, whether it be considered normal or abnormal is made up of four individual components. These are: the respiratory rate (frequency), respiratory depth (drive), mode (symmetry), and regularity (rhythm). Each of these components can be differentially affected by physiological and pathological insults. Changes in breathing patterns are invariably accompanied by symptoms, the commonest being breathlessness (dyspnea). Abnormal breathing patterns can occur when the underlying lung is unaffected by disease including physiological examples, such as in vigorous exercise. Examples of pathological conditions which cause abnormal breathing patterns in the absence of chest disease include severe neurological compromise, such as in Cheyne-Stokes breathing or as a result of severe endogenous or exogenous metabolic acidosis, as in Kussmaul breathing. In the compromised lung, tachypnea and bradypnea are the most frequently observed abnormal breathing patterns as they so commonly accompany underlying chest pathology, but other abnormal patterns of breathing including hypopnea and platypnea also occur. In addition, various conditions can affect the symmetry/mode of breathing globally, causing thoracic, abdominal, and paradoxical breathing, or have effects more specifically during inspiration or expiration, or as localized phenomena.