Читать книгу Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations - University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine - Страница 16

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The pulse was invariably slow, or rather out of proportion to the temperature. Even when the patient seemed very ill the pulse remained from 84 to 96, and of surprisingly good quality. This was noted also when some of the more severe pulmonary involvements or some complications arose. The pulse frequently did not become rapid until shortly before death. The respirations in an uncomplicated case also remained about normal. The rate was not accelerated until lung complications arose, and then a gradually increasing rate was often the first herald of oncoming danger and a sign of grave prognostic import. The relation of the pulse phenomena toward the end of a fatal case was most remarkable. The respiratory rate was accelerated, as has been noted above, but the pulse rate frequently remained unchanged, being characteristically slow. In a patient seen in consultation with Dr. Lester H. Botkin, of Duquesne, Pa., death took place while we were in the sick room. It was a case of apparently uncomplicated influenza of seven days’ duration. The respirations were rapid and the pulse was only 96. In the last five minutes of life the heart beats as observed with the stethoscope never varied, until they suddenly ceased; during the same time the respiratory efforts were only three agonal ones, the last being a minute or so before the last heart beat. There were no physical signs of consolidation at any time recognized in this case, but we feel that the lung, had we seen it at autopsy, would in all likelihood have shown the peculiar hemorrhagic and œdematous character so often observed in the fatal cases.

There were, of course, marked exceptions to the description of slow pulse and later rapid respirations observed. In some the pulse rate and respirations increased, together with or without definite signs of a grave complication.