Panting

Hasty, rapid, labored breathing with discontinuity between inhalation and exhalation, in severe cases with gaping mouth, raised shoulders, flaring nostrils, and inability to lie down. When associated with counterflow movement of qì, it is sometimes called panting counterflow. When breathing is usually rapid, it is sometimes called hasty panting. When in severe cases it is associated with raising of the shoulders and flaring nostrils, it is raised-shoulder breathing.

Panting is a manifestation of impaired diffusion and downbearing of lung qì. Since the lung is the governor of qì and the kidney is the root of qì, panting is associated primarily with disease of the lung and or kidney. Panting occurs in repletion and vacuity. Repletion panting may occur when externally contracted wind-heat or wind-cold invade the lung, when depressed liver qì invades the lung, or when phlegm arising from spleen-lung vacuity obstructs the lung. Vacuity panting occurs in dual vacuity of lung yīn and lung qì, and in failure of the kidney to absorb qì. Kidney vacuity with phlegm obstruction and yáng vacuity water flood are vacuity-repletion complexes that may also give rise to panting. The difference between vacuity and repletion panting is succinctly elucidated in Jing-Yue’s Complete Compendium (景岳全书 jǐng yuè quán shū) as follows: In repletion panting, breathing is deep, and inhalation seems to be never-ending. In vacuity panting, breaths are short with a brief halt between inhalation and exhalation. In repletion panting, the chest feels distended, breathing is rough, and the voice is high and strident; the chest swells as if to burst, unable to contain all the breath it draws in, and relief from discomfort only comes with exhalation. In vacuity panting, the patient is distressed and anxious, and his voice is low and faint; he is panicky, feeling as if he is about to stop breathing; he is unable to catch his breath and feels as though the air is not being absorbed by the lungs; the short rapid breaths give the impression of panting [as from exertion] and relief is felt only when a long breath can be drawn.

Biomedical correspondence: dyspnea (classical repletion panting is seen in acute attacks of bronchial asthma, whereas vacuity panting occurs in pulmonary emphysema or dyspnea due to cardiac failure).

Comparison: Wheezing is noisy breathing that sometimes occurs with panting (wheezing and panting), but not on its own. The Orthodox Tradition of Medicine (医学正传 yī xué zhèng zhuàn) states, Hasty panting with frog rale in the throat is called wheezing; hasty breathing with discontinuity between breaths is panting. See cold panting; heat panting; repletion panting; vacuity panting.

Etymology

Chin 喘 chuǎn, pant, be out of breath.