Guide To The Symptoms Of Myasthenia Gravis

Dyspnea

Individuals affected by myasthenia gravis may experience dyspnea as a manifestation of their disorder. Dyspnea is characterized as a combination of one or more respiratory symptoms that include feeling smothered or suffocated, chest tightness, heart palpitations, coughing, breathlessness, labored breathing, rapid or shallow breathing, and wheezing. Upon the inhalation of air in a healthy individual, the diaphragm contracts and presses downward in order to make room for the lungs to expand in the chest. The intercostal muscles assist with enlarging the chest, and they are responsible for pulling the rib cage up while pushing it out upon inhalation. When these two muscles experience weakness due to nerve transmission impairment in myasthenia gravis patients, hypoventilation or abnormally slow rate of breathing will occur. An individual affected by myasthenia gravis may experience dyspnea as a result of weak pharyngeal muscles that have collapsed in their upper airway. This type of respiratory symptom may be challenging to link to myasthenia gravis as its underlying cause, as the patient maintains normal arterial blood oxygen levels during the beginning stages of hypoventilation.