PAROXYSMAL DYSPNEA AS A SYMPTOM OF SYPHILITIC AORTITIS

Abstract
Paroxysmal dyspnea is so common a manifestation of aortic insufficiency dependent on syphilitic aortitis, often, indeed, being the first symptom of this disease, that it has been generally accepted that it is due directly to the presence of syphilitic aortitis, particularly when the lesion is situated at the root of the aorta.1 This view is apparently strengthened by the fact that paroxysmal dyspnea is practically never associated with aortic insufficiency of rheumatic origin.2 Our own experience in this hospital has certainly been in agreement with that of the writers to whom reference is made. From about thirty to fifty cases of aortic insufficiency developing on the basis of syphilis of the aorta are seen every year, ad nin almost all these a history of attacks of paroxysmal dyspnea can be elicited on careful questioning, substantiated usually by actual observation of the attacks in the wards.3 We have come to feel

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