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" Question My father has been diagnosed with paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea (PND). He is 75-years-old. Could you provide me with information about the illness?  Answer PND is not really an illness, but a description of a pattern of symptoms.  It means there are episodes of shortness of breath that occur mostly at night.  These episodes can start suddenly, and the person sounds wheezy. It may be accompanied by chest pain and sweating.  PND is sometimes called cardiac asthma, but it&amp;#039;s nothing to do with ordinary asthma.  The cause of these symptoms is a sudden build-up of fluid in the lungs. This is usually due to excessive strain on the left side of the heart and is a form of heart failure.  Don&amp;#039;t let that term alarm you too much, because it can be treated. The strain on the heart can be caused by things like raised blood pressure, a previous heart attack, hardening of the arteries or angina. The acute symptoms can be treated with diuretics. These are drugs that promote rapid fluid loss and clear the fluid from the lungs.  Once this is under control, there are other drugs that can be added to the diuretics like digoxin and ACE inhibitors that can improve the heart&amp;#039;s action.  Patients can do well on these treatments and live a virtually normal life for years, provided there are no other things wrong with them and their general health is okay. I hope your father responds well to treatment. Yours sincerely The NetDoctor Medical Team   Other Qs &amp;amp;amp; As Am I at risk of deep vein thrombosis? Aneurysm Concerned about my father Is there another treatment for my tremor? My grandmother woke up and couldn&amp;#039;t speak My memory has suddenly deteriorated My mum suffers from chronic diarrhoea Recovering from a colon resection Should I get a hearing aid? Supplement to combat memory loss and tiredness What can be done about phlebitis? What is a laminotomy? What is an aneurysm? What is a pons stroke? What is cerebral ataxia? What is the parathyroid? Will flying make my swollen legs worse?  Last updated 29.01.2012 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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