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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suffering With COPD, Emphysema, Had An Episode Of Fainting Where Breathing Stopped, Normal Test Results. Cause?

Hello, my mom had some type of episode in which she fainted and stopped breathing . Her PCP has done CT scan with and without contrast, CBC bloodwork, urinalysis & carotoid doppler. All the tests have come back normal. She quite smoking 2yrs ago. She does have COPD , Emphysema and she snores really bad. Can you give me any possibilities of what could have caused her episode? Oh, she is 70 years old.
Mon, 15 Oct 2012
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Pulmonologist,  's  Response
Hi
Thanks for your query
Sudden fainting and stoppage of breathing in aknown COPD patient is indicative of some underlying complication specially pulmonary arterial hypertension or pulmonary embolism. Again your mom had a bed snore in this 70 years of age and in this case we need to exclude obstructive sleep apnea. Therefore i asked you to consult a pulmonologist, get locally examined and go through the following sets of investigations -
1. chest x-ray (PA view)
2. ECG
3. Echocardiography with spl focus to measure the mean pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) to exclude PAH
4. CT angiography
5. Polysomnography
6. Lipid profile
Also ask the pulmonologist to check the inhaler technique and to assess the control of COPD.
Thank you.
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Suffering With COPD, Emphysema, Had An Episode Of Fainting Where Breathing Stopped, Normal Test Results. Cause?

Hi Thanks for your query Sudden fainting and stoppage of breathing in aknown COPD patient is indicative of some underlying complication specially pulmonary arterial hypertension or pulmonary embolism. Again your mom had a bed snore in this 70 years of age and in this case we need to exclude obstructive sleep apnea. Therefore i asked you to consult a pulmonologist, get locally examined and go through the following sets of investigations - 1. chest x-ray (PA view) 2. ECG 3. Echocardiography with spl focus to measure the mean pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) to exclude PAH 4. CT angiography 5. Polysomnography 6. Lipid profile Also ask the pulmonologist to check the inhaler technique and to assess the control of COPD. Thank you.