0 a medical condition that makes someone stop breathing for a short time, especially when they are sleeping:
sleep apnoea
In children younger than 6 months, apnoea was also regarded as a typical clinical symptom.
Stimulation of the same areas by, for example, epileptic seizures, may result in apnoea.
Some of the confusion around this issue may be due to the definition of different types of apnoea.
The decrease in functional residual capacity and increased oxygen consumption during pregnancy lead to a rapid onset of hypoxaemia during apnoea.
It can be normal, as with deglutition apnoea which occurs in swallowing, or abnormal, as a result of a number of medical conditions.
The most common disorder is obstructive sleep apnoea, in which obstruction of the airway during sleep can lead to excessive daytime tiredness.
The first relates to sleep apnoea and road safety.
One problem is the definition of the point of apnoea—a person's last gasp—which is necessary in order to determine exactly when one institutes elective ventilation.
