Kussmaul breathing

Kussmaul breathing is the rapid, deep, and labored breathing(see hyperventilation) of people who have acidosis. Kussmaul breathing is named for Adolph Kussmaul, the 19th centuryGermandoctorwho first noted it. It is also called "air hunger".

The cause of Kussmaul breathing is respiratorycompensation for a metabolic acidosis, most commonly occurring in diabeticsin diabetic ketoacidosis. Blood gases on a patient with Kussmaul breathing will show a low p_CO2 because of a forced increased respiratory rate(blowing off the carbon dioxide). The patient feels an urge to breathe deeply, and it appears almost involuntary.

The effect can be reproduced, to a degree, by rapidly breathing in the air in a recently-emptied plastic soft-drink bottle, which will normally contain a substantial amount of carbon dioxide.de:Kussmaul-Atmung

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kussmaul+breathing Wikipedia article Kussmaul breathing.