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Clinical features of white breath-holding

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

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Pallid breath-holding is rarer than blue breath holding, and usually follows a precipitant such as a knock on the head or fall.

Often the attack is preceded by a brief episode of crying, followed by breath holding with a short period of bradycardia or cardiac arrest, resulting in extreme pallor.

The attack usually terminates without loss of consciousness but may sometimes end with unconsciousness or rarely a tonic seizure - or tonic-clonic convulsion. Opisthotonus may be noted. In the case of a convulsion, incontinence may occur.

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