What Causes Involuntary Jerking Of The Body During Sleep And Breathlessness While Walking?

Posted on Mon, 28 Aug 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 Answered on

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : my husband is jerking while sleeping In the past few days he has had shortness of breath when walking short distnces

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (-4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, I would explain that his symptoms could be related to different possible causes: heart failure, a lung disorder ,sleep apnea or an electrolyte imbalance.

For this reason, I would recommend consulting with his attending physician for a careful physical exam and some tests:

- a resting ECG and a cardiac ultrasound
- a chest XRay study and pulmonary function tests
- a multi Sleep latency test for sleep apnea
- complete blood count for anemia
- blood electrolytes for possible imbalance
- an arterial blood gas analysis.

You should discuss with his doctor on the above issues.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr.Iliri

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar