A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 3 : $b Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and hæmatopoietic systems
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 3 : $b Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and hæmatopoietic systems
Medicine -- Practice
There is a kind of disturbance of the motor function of the larynx
which has been described as chorea. The derangements of phonation and
of respiration are such as we should naturally expect from want of
co-ordination of the muscles concerned in speaking and breathing. There
may be a true chorea of the laryngeal muscles when there is no other
indication of the disease. Lefferts, in the first volume of the
_Transactions of the American Laryngological Association_, reports
three cases which he designates chorea of the larynx. They were all
characterized by spasm of the muscles concerned in phonation. It is to
be observed, however, that all three were women in early life, and that
there were no other choreic troubles mentioned. There were, so far as
the histories indicate, no hysterical phenomena present, if we assume
that the laryngeal trouble was not of that character. In the recital of
these cases the author seems to think that the evidence that the
patients were not simulating is a sufficient proof that the troubles
were not hysterical. This will not, I think, be accepted as adequate
proof of the absence of hysteria. It is certainly possible that the
patients were all three really choreic, but there is at least in the
fact of the sex, the absence of other manifestations of this disease,
and, so far as the author informs us, no antecedent history of
rheumatism or other morbid conditions so frequently preceding chorea, a
doubt as to the nature of the affection. Chorea affecting the muscles
of the throat and of respiration is, I think, not unfrequently met
with, but there is in these cases, so far as I know, such well-marked
symptoms of the origin and nature of the trouble as to leave no
reasonable room for doubt.
Cases of unmistakable chorea limited to the laryngeal muscles have been
seen by Knight, Roe, and others. Chorea or spasm of the expiratory
muscles alone may occur. I have the records of one such case, an adult
male. I was unable to say certainly that the larynx was the only part
involved. After a full inspiration there followed a series of short,
jerky, expiratory acts till the movable air in the thorax was all
expelled. For a few breaths the respiration was regular and full, when
the same phenomena were repeated. There was no organic disease. There
was forcible closing of the glottis during the {77} spasmodic
expiratory efforts. The patient recovered under treatment by
arsenic.[8]
[Footnote 8: It may not be easy in all cases to distinguish between the
true choreic cases and the hysterical affections. Knight of Boston has
given special study to choreic troubles of the larynx. He recognizes
three varieties: The first includes those cases in which the adductor
and expiratory muscles each side of the larynx are involved; second, in
which the laryngeal muscles alone are involved; third, in which the
expiratory muscles alone are involved.]
TREATMENT.--This should be the same as for other forms of chorea.
Nervous Cough.
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