Cardiorespiratory involvement in infantile scurvy

Abstract

Infantile scurvy is commonly regarded as a disorder which affects the blood vessels and the bones. In previous communications it has been shown that this view is too narrow, that the heart is frequently enlarged, the deep reflexes exaggerated, and that there may be changes in optic discs. In the present communication we wish to point out that even in moderate instances of infantile scurvy, there may be found marked polypnea and tachycardia. The accompanying chart illustrates this condition and demonstrates likewise its scorbutic nature by the promptness with which it reacts to antiscorbutic diet, to orange juice or to potato.

This pathological syndrome evidently is due to an involvement of the pneumogastric. It is interesting as another proof of the important part which the nervous system plays in this disease, and in associating it still more closely with other so-called “deficiency diseases” such as beriberi and pellagra, in which the disturbances of the nervous system seem to be primary in nature.