THE PULMONARY ABNORMALITIES IN MYXEDEMA*†

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report a study of lung function in patients with myxedema. Re- cently we studied 28 obese persons and found 10 who had alveolar hypoventilation manifested by increased arterial Pco2 (2). They had either lung disease or myxedema in association with their obesity. The nature of pulmonary involvement in patients with myxedema has not been studied. Why did patients with obesity and myxedema de- velop alveolar hypoventilation? We postulated that patients with myxedema might have one or all of the following: a depression of the respiratory center in the brain, interference with neural con- duction or with neuromuscular transmission to the respiratory muscles, disease of the respiratory muscles, or a change in the character of the alveolar capillary membrane.