UVa Health System, Department of Medicine, Pulmonary Division seeks healthy men, women, children and adolescents ages 5 to 65, with snoring and possible sleep-related obstructive breathing disorders for a research study.

The purpose of the study is to determine if an experimental device for sleep monitoring can accurately tell if you are awake or asleep and how well you are sleeping. The experimental device will be compared to a sleep study done using standard sleep monitoring equipment.
The study involves 1 outpatient consent and screening visit that will last about 1 hour, and 1 overnight stay at UVa Health Systems GCRC of about 16 hours for sleep monitoring.

§ Study-related screening visit and overnight sleep test (standard test to detect the presence of sleep apnea) provided free of charge.
§ Compensation for study completion is $ 125.00
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Poor sleep quality, insomnia,sleep apnea, and daytime somnolence are common among recently deployed Soldiers and those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We sought to determine the prevalence of sleep complaints and sleep disorders among recently deployed Soldiers with PTSD.

The researchers analyzed the records of 80 consecutive Soldiers returning from combat and diagnosed with PTSD. We determined the rate of sleep complaints and prevalence of insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. We compared demographic data, psychoactive medication use, psychiatric disorders and concomitant traumatic brain injury (TBI) to determine if any variables correlated with increased sleep complaints or disorders. Read the rest of this entry

A recent research study established that acupuncture as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has immediate effects in reducing nocturnal respiratory events, sleep disruptions, and desaturations (low oxygen levels in the blood). The researchers hypothesize that this improvement is due to acupuncture’s effects on serotonergic pathways and also acupuncture’s anti-inflammatory effects. Both manual acupuncture and 10Hz electro-acupuncture techniques were found effective. Both techniques produced superior clinical outcomes compared with 2Hz electro-acupuncture.
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Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is associated with neurocognitive and endothelial dysfunction.

However, it is unclear whether these two frequent morbidities of OSAS in children represent similar or different underlying pathophysiological processes, because they have never been concurrently assessed in children.

Consecutive children (ages 5–8 years) with polysomnographically based OSAS underwent cognitive battery evaluation (Differential Ability Scales and the NeuroPsychological Assessment Battery) and cuff-occlusion hyperemic tests for assessment of endothelial function. Read the rest of this entry

A research was conducted with an Objective to describe experience treating retroglossal and base-of-tongue collapse in children and young adults with obstructive sleep apnea using combined genioglossus advancement (Repose THS; MedtronicENT, Jacksonville, Florida) and radiofrequency ablation of the tongue base.

The team of researchers included experts from Pediatric Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr Wootten is now with the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Retrospective institutional review board–approved analysis of 31 operations was conducted at the tertiary pediatric medical center. In all thirty-one patients with a mean age of 11.5 years (age range, 3.1-23.0 years).  Read the rest of this entry

As Americans get heavier and heavier, the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea increases, and results from two clinical studies presented at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2010 reinforce the need for physicians to screen for the disorder prior to surgery in order to appropriately manage the patient in the operating room.

“If patients with unidentified obstructive sleep apnea undergo surgery, they may have an increased chance of experiencing complications during and after surgery,” said Frances Chung, F.R.C.P.C., investigator on both studies and Professor, Department of Anesthesia, University Health Network, University of Toronto. “A growing amount of evidence suggests that obstructive sleep apnea is associated with heart and lung disease, diabetes mellitus and a higher rate of early death.” Read the rest of this entry

Recent studies suggest that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) causes thoracic aortic dilatation; but it is well accepted that hypertension can cause aortic dilatation, and hypertension is a common finding in patients with OSA.

The researchers at the” Cardiac Department and Department of General Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore” aimed to investigate the relative impact of OSA and hypertension on the structural and functional changes of the thoracic aorta.

This was an echocardiography substudy of a major prospective OSA study in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Read the rest of this entry

Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) increases overall cardiovascular risk. MetSyn is also strongly associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and these 2 conditions share similar comorbidities.

 Whether OSA increases cardiovascular risk in patients with the MetSyn has not been investigated.

Researchers examined how the presence of OSA in patients with MetSyn affected hemodynamic and autonomic variables associated with poor cardiovascular outcome. Read the rest of this entry

A recently research report on a patient with mental retardation and chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure who was found to have severe central apnea and periodic breathing while undergoing an evaluation of low oxygen saturation during wakefulness at rest has revealed that the Joubert syndrome is closely associated with severe central sleep apnea.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, which was performed to uncover potential causes for the central sleep apnea, revealed a “molar tooth sign” consistent with the diagnosis of Joubert syndrome. 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}

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