Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist: An Early Clue to Diagnosis of Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome.

ABSTRACT

Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) is characterized by shallow breathing during sleep due to negligible ventilatory sensitivity to hypercarbia and hypoxemia. It is diagnosed using a genetic test for PHOX2B mutation, which is not easily available. Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) is a spontaneous ventilatory mode that was designed basically for better adapting the ventilator to the patient by using electrical activity of diaphragm (EAdi) signals. We report a case of a 6-month-old infant who presented with recurrent apneas, where differential decrease in EAdi discharges during sleep using NAVA served as an early clue to the diagnosis of CCHS. Definitive diagnosis was later confirmed by genetic testing. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE Rauf A, Gupta D, Sachdev A, Gupta N, Gupta S, Kumar P, et al. Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist An Early Clue to Diagnosis of Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome. IJCCM 2019;23(11)536-537.