How do mammals prepare themselves in utero for a radical modification to their respiration at the time of birth, when they move abruptly from an aquatic medium to air?

CNRS researchers, working in collaboration with teams from the Universities of the Méditerranée, Paris-Sud 11 and Paul Cézanne have identified a gene in the mouse that is essential to respiration and consequently to survival at birth. This work, just published in the Journal of Neuroscience, opens the way to better understanding respiratory disorders in humans, which can range from sleep apnea to sudden infant death syndrome. 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

Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can cause undesirable nasal symptoms such as congestion to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients, which symptoms can be attenuated by the addition of heated humidification.

However, neither the nature of nasal symptoms nor the effect of heated humidification on nasal pathophysiology and pathology are convincingly known.

 Twenty patients with OSA on nasal CPAP who exhibited symptomatic nasal obstruction were randomized to receive either 3 weeks of CPAP treatment with heated humidification or 3 weeks of CPAP treatment with sham-heated humidification, followed by 3 weeks of the opposite treatment, respectively. 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}

Obstructive sleep apnea has been related to increased cardiovascular risk. A recent research study examined the relationships between respiratory parameters and left ventricular abnormalities in obstructive sleep apnea.

One hundred and fifty newly diagnosed OSA patients without any known cardiovascular disease were included (age =49±11 years, BMI =27.1±3.3 kg·m^–2, respiratory disturbance index =41±18/h). Haemodynamic, biological, respiratory, cardiac and arterial parameters were assessed at inclusion. ^{Read the rest of this entry}

Physiologic changes of pregnancy may predispose females to develop sleep disordered breathing (SDB) or protect against it. Studies evaluating outcomes of SDB symptoms in pregnancy are scarce. The goal of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of SDB symptoms in pregnancy and their relationship with pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

A cross-sectional survey of randomly selected immediate postpartum females was performed using the multivariable apnea prediction index. Record review including demographics and medical history was performed. Main outcome measures included pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. 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

The researchers in Switzerland measured age-specific prevalence of airflow obstruction (AO) in Switzerland in smokers and never smokers using pulmonary function tests and respiratory symptoms from 6126 subjects participating in the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults.

The lower limit of normal of FEV₁/FVC ratio was used to define AO. Severity of AO was graded according to the recommendations of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. 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

To compare the sleep-disordered breathing prevalence among Hispanic and white Americans and Japanese, the researchers performed a one-night sleep study with a single channel airflow monitor on 211 Hispanics and 246 whites from the Minnesota Field Center of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), and 978 Japanese from three community-based cohorts of the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study (CIRCS) in Japan. Read the rest of this entry

Your eyes tell about overall health. 

A study concluded on people with sleep apnea found an amazing correlation with increased risk for glaucoma and stroke.In all 83 people with sleep apnea participated in this research study. Out of these 83 people in the study — fully one third had glaucoma!  

If you have sleep apnea you should see your eye doctor regularly and mention you have SA. Keep regular visits with your primary care physician to monitor blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and blood sugar.Symptoms of sleep apnea-which usually occur in overweight males, include daytime sleepiness, chronic fatigue, and decreased cognitive function.

Another study found 40 minutes of exercise per day (such as brisk walking), four days per week lowered pressure in the eyes as effectively as some eye drop medications! This means exercise can reduce your risk of glaucoma, or if you already have it, exercise will help your glaucoma medications work better.

Cardiac Concepts, Inc., a developer of medical devices to treat Heart Failure patients who experience breathing disturbances during sleep, announced today enrollment of the first European patients in a Pilot Clinical Trial.

The purpose of the Pilot Study is to understand the respiratory and cardiac benefits of the RespiCardia(TM) System when treating a breathing disorder known as Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) in Heart Failure patients. Prof. Piotr Ponikowski, Principal Investigator of the Pilot Clinical Trial at The Medical University/4th Military Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland, commented that the system was successfully implanted in 2 male patients, ages 57 and 68 years with ischemic cardiomyopathy and symptoms of moderate heart failure. Despite optimal medical management, both experienced severe sleep breathing disorders. The trial is a 40 patient study being conducted in a number of centers worldwide. Implants are expected to begin in the United States in the coming months. 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

According to new research that received the Graduate Student Research Award on June 5, at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, the ratio between tongue volume and bony enclosure size in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may help dentists calculate oral appliance treatment success.

The researchers assessed whether anatomical factors such as craniofacial size, upper-airway soft tissue volume, and/or the anatomical balance between them were associated with mandibular advancement splint (MAS) treatment outcome.

The study included 49 OSA patients. Patients were at least 18 years of age and had mild to severe sleep apnea. They were without other sleep disorders or serious comorbid medical or psychiatric disorders. Read the rest of this entry