A Clinical Study on Patients with Autonomic Seizures of the Chest

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the pathological mechanism of autonomic seizures of the chest. Clinical and electroencephalographical studies were performed in 197 patients with the chief complaints of palpitation, pressure or strangling sensation in the chest, feeling of difficulty in breating, pain of the chest or tachypnea, and with no findings of organic respiratory and cardiac diseases. Their EEGs were abnormal in 131 patients (A-group) and normal in 66 (N-group). The patients were found to be predominantly in their 10's and 30's in the A-group and in their 30's in the N-group. The ratio of male and female was about 1 : 2 in both groups.The predominant abnormal EEG findings included 14 and 6 per second positive spikes in 74 patients (56.5%) and diffuse slow or sharp and slow wave bursts in 85 (64.9%). Inducements of the seizures were known in 29 of 131 patients in the A-group and 24 of 66 patients in the N-group. Physical inducements such as intensitive bodily exercise, overwork or alcohol ingestion were more frequently found in the N-group, and psychic inducements such as emotional stress from problems in the family, place of work or school were higher in the A-group. The Cornell Medical Index and Yatabe-Guiford's personality test were given to 44 patients in the A-group and 28 in the N-group. More than 70 per cent of both groups were neurotic according to the CMI. The Y-G test indicated more cases of emotional instability and/or maladjustment in the N-group than in the A-group.