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(Chest. 1958;34:60-72.)
© 1958 American College of Chest Physicians

The Symptom of Sighing: Physiologic and Pathologic Observations

GEORGE C. LEINER M.D.1 and SOL ABRAMOWITZ B.A.2

1 Consultant, Pulmonary Physiology.
2 Chief, Cardio-Pulmonary Laboratory.

A sigh is defined as a deep inspiration, 1.5 times or more of the tidal volume.

In 417 spirograms of 330 individuals (normals and patients with various pulmonary and cardiac diseases) taken during two six minute periods of oxygen breathing, 93 spirograms of 81 individuals showed sighs.

Patients with larger vital capacities produced larger sighs than those with smaller vital capacities. A similar parallelism existed between inspiratory capacity and sigh volume. No correlation was found between tidal volume and sigh volume.

In another series of studies it was seen that sighs occur under air breathing as well as under oxygen breathing.

Sighing respiration could also be recorded during bronchospirometric studies.

Six patients with various neurological disorders produced sighs greater in volume than their vital capacities. The sigh is apparently caused by a reflex which was not disturbed in these patients in whom the pathway for a voluntary deep breath had been damaged.






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Copyright © 1958 by the American College of Chest Physicians.