The “combination of confusing guidelines” on sleep apnea testing and treatment is a big puzzle in itself and is also a major cause of frustration among truckers and all other sleep apnea sufferes.

Dr. Rochelle Goldberg, president of the board of the American Sleep Apnea Association, the patient support organization with which the Truckers for a Cause chapter of A.W.A.K.E. is affiliated, wanted to set the record straight that currently there are only guidelines, not law, governing sleep apnea testing and treatment for truckers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is still collecting data and is likely to come up with new guidelines by the end of this year but no new measures are in place. Read the rest of this entry

A good night’s sleep is crucial to daily function, but more than 40 million Americans live with an undiagnosed or untreated sleep disorder in the United States. At Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, the sleep-challenged can find help at the Sleep Center, now conveniently located at the Hawthorne Inn to provide patients with the highest quality of care in a comfortable and relaxing environment. Read the rest of this entry

The market for homecare is growing throughout the world. Air Liquide (Paris:AI), which ranks 1^st in Europe and 3^rd in the world for homecare, continues to develop its offer of services through targeted acquisitions in Australia and South Korea.

Air Liquide announces the acquisition in Australia of 70% of the company Snore Australia, a major player in the field of sleep diagnosis. These diagnoses help to identify and assess the degree of disorders in conditions such as sleep apnea. Created ten years ago, this company makes over 15,000 sleep diagnoses per year in its thirteen sleep laboratories. With 72 employees, its annual revenue amounts to €5.6 million. In Australia, it is estimated that around 480,000 people suffer from sleep apnea, of which only 25% have been diagnosed to date. Read the rest of this entry

Overweight in children is most commonly described by using BMI. Because BMI does not adequately describe regional (central) adiposity, other indices of body fatness are being explored.

Neck circumference (NC) is positively associated with obstructive sleep apnea, diabetes, and hypertension in adults. NC also has positive correlation with BMI in adults. The possible role of NC in screening for high BMI in children is not well characterized. Read the rest of this entry

Clinic-based observational studies in men have reported that obstructive sleep apnea is associated with an increased incidence of coronary heart disease. The objective of this study was to assess the relation of obstructive sleep apnea to incident coronary heart disease and heart failure in a general community sample of adult men and women.

A total of 1927 men and 2495 women 40 years of age and free of coronary heart disease and heart failure at the time of baseline polysomnography were followed up for a median of 8.7 years in this prospective longitudinal epidemiological study. Read the rest of this entry

 Patients with neuromuscular disease (NMD) are at risk of developing sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) following respiratory muscle involvement. The researchers hypothesised that a questionnaire based on clinical symptoms and signs of diaphragm weakness can be used to screen for SDB in such patients.  

Researchers developed a self-administered multiple choice questionnaire containing five questions (SiNQ-5), scoring 0–10 points. 125 patients were enroled, 32 with respiratory muscle weakness, 35 subjects with normal respiratory muscle strength, and 58 patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). All subjects underwent full polysomnography. ^{Read the rest of this entry}

Sleep related disorders (SRD) represent an important health burden and their prevalence increases with age.

In patients with snoring or sleepiness, the presence of expiratory flow limitation (EFL) using the Negative Expiratory Pressure (NEP) method is related to the Apnea/Hypopnea Index (AHI). In this study we examined whether EFL can be used to predict the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in healthy asymptomatic older subjects. Read the rest of this entry

A research study was concluded recently to estimate the population prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in an urban community of German third graders and the diagnostic test accuracy of two OSA screening methods.

Using a cross-sectional study design with a multi-stage sampling strategy, 27 out of 59 primary schools within the city limits of Hannover, Germany, were selected. One-thousand and forty-four (1044)  third graders were screened for symptoms of Sleep Apnea along with Symptoms and signs of OSA using questionnaires and nocturnal home pulse oximetry. Read the rest of this entry

Cinterion and one of its partners – Royal Philips Electronics – recently jointly won the ‘Best Embedded End-to-End Service Award’, part of the GSMA’s embedded mobile competition, for its Respironics System One sleep therapy solution. The M2M solution integrates one of Cinterion’s award-winning Evolution platform modules and marries mobility and reliable two-way wireless communications with advancements in sleep apnea therapy to help millions of patients and their healthcare providers who must meet rigorous new reporting standards. Read the rest of this entry

 The Sleep Center at Phelps Memorial Hospital , New York was recently fully accredited as a sleep center by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. To be accredited, a sleep medicine provider must demonstrate compliance in areas such as patient safety and follow-up, testing procedures and policies, physician and staff training, and facility and equipment. Read the rest of this entry

There is a new home based device that can be potentially used for monitoring health issues – such as sleep apnea at home.

With this new device a patient’s vital signs are typically taken once every four to eight hours. The cuff works overtime, measuring a patient’s blood oxygen levels, heart rhythm and rate, respiration and blood pressure, every 60 seconds. The data is sent wirelessly to a central computer. If something goes wrong, an alert sounds. Read the rest of this entry

When you hear the phrase, “Sleep Apnea”, you don’t typically think of dentists, but a Las Vegas dental school hopes to change that. The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, commonly known as LVI Global has launched a new series of courses aimed at educating dentists on how to recognize the symptoms of Sleep Apnea and, working with a sleep physician, diagnose and treat the disease.

The first course happened last week and was a foundational class that taught dentists about the potentially deadly effects that Sleep Apnea can have on the body, and why a dentist can act as the first line of defense in identifying potential Sleep Apnea sufferers called “apneics”.

“People with Sleep Apnea often don’t know that they have it. By simply asking some questions that their primary doctor might not know to ask, we can help people be aware of the problem and start them on the road to treatment,” says Corpus Christi Sleep Apnea dentist, Dr. Don Lowrance. Read the rest of this entry

[Press Release]- Graymark Healthcare Inc. the nation’s second largest provider of diagnostic sleep services and an innovator in comprehensive care for obstructive sleep apnea today announced that it sold a record number of CPAP machines in Q2 providing relief to over 750 patients. In addition they served over 1275 patients through their CPAP re-supply service.

Graymark Healthcare has been pioneering better techniques for ensuring that patients diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are quickly and effectively treated in an effort to optimize clinical outcomes. Graymark has driven improved patient compliance with CPAP care and overall disease management by integrating the diagnostic and treatment processes.

“In Q4 of 2009 we at Graymark Healthcare announced the launch of our comprehensive care model aimed at improving the conversion rate of patients diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea to successful care with a CPAP device. We have seen consistent month over month growth in our therapy services this year and had record patient therapy volumes in Q2. We expect continued momentum through Q3 and associated strong performance,” said Stanton Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Graymark Healthcare. “We believe that our revolutionary comprehensive care model better serves our patients and is more cost effective than the fragmented care provided in other settings. Additionally, our re-supply program ensures that our patients are contacted no less than quarterly and that we can continue to work with them to improve their CPAP experience,” added Nelson. Read the rest of this entry

According to a new research study findings theBerlin questionnaire performs poorly in predicting obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in pregnant women compared to polysomnography. The detailed findings of this research study are published in the June issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Sofia A. Olivarez, M.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues conducted a prospective clinical trial of 100 women in the third trimester of pregnancy to determine the ability of the Berlin sleep questionnaire to predict OSA. The women all underwent polysomnography with concurrent fetal heart monitoring (FHM).

The researchers observed that 20 percent of the cohort was diagnosed with OSA by polysomnography, considered the diagnostic gold-standard. The Berlin screening questionnaire was 35 percent as sensitive as polysomnography and 63.8 percent as specific in predicting OSA. Read the rest of this entry