Neurogenic Breathing Patterns

Abnormalities of cardiac function and cardiac electrophysiology are not uncommon in patients with acute injury to the central nervous system, and cardiac abnormalities may be the initial signs when these patients are first evaluated. Some patients have findings that suggest an acute coronary syndrome but disappear after the intracranial pressure surge subsides. The clinician must consider underlying neurologic disease when a patient presents with cardiac arrhythmias, new-onset pulmonary edema, hypotension, or cardiogenic shock with characteristics atypical for a primary cardiac event if the patient is in an otherwise unexplained comatose state.