Topic: central CO2 chemoreception

Respiratory dysfunction, particularly central apnea, accompanied by cardiac abnormalities are proposed to be the underlying causes of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Apnea in SUDEP is characterised by prologued hypercapnia with severe hypoventilation. We propose that this implies an impairment at the level of central CO2 chemoreception (CCR) drive for breathing which is coupled with cardiodysregulation. CCR can be quantified with ventilatory response to hypercapnic challenge and has not been previously studied in a chronic model of temporal lobe epilepsy, in which SUDEP may be obs