A new computer screening tool developed and patented by a UB physician is helping to detect severe obstructive sleep apnea in cardiovascular patients who have not yet been diagnosed with this common and potentially dangerous condition.

The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, is being conducted by a UB researcher at the Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System.

The goal is to evaluate how well the computer screening tool developed at UB diagnoses sleep apnea in patients with heart disease, compared to an overnight sleep study, or polysomnography, considered the ‘gold standard’ for diagnosing sleep apnea.

“The importance of this grant is that it may give us a faster way to screen for sleep apnea in patients who are already at high risk but who are undiagnosed,” says principal investigator Ali A. El Solh, professor of medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and professor of social and preventive medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions. Read the rest of this entry

May is the month known as “better sleep month”.  Undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea is causing needless suffering, according to Brian Marks, who is director of cardiopulmonary services and the Hillside Hospital Sleep Medicine Center.  The Sleep Medicine Center has two sleep labs available for sleep studies and each clones a regular bedroom atmosphere.   One of the goals of the staff is to educate the community about sleep apnea and other sleep disorders.

“Serious sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, impact significant numbers of people,” he said.  “And, even more importantly, many people are unaware of the symptoms, risk factors for, or serious complications that can result from untreated sleep disorders.”

According to Marks, many patients are misdiagnosed with depression who are actually suffering from the long-term effects of untreated sleep apnea.  As many as twenty-five percent of people who have high blood pressure have sleep apnea and patients with untreated sleep apnea are at increased risk for initial and recurrent heart attacks.

“Physicians have a high clinical suspicion about sleep apnea if they are treating a patient who is overweight, has high blood pressure, is fatigued, and is experiencing a decreasing ability to concentrate.  Ordering a sleep evaluation should be considered.  And, most certainly, anyone with an underlying history of heart disease should be evaluated for sleep apnea as it significantly increases the risk of a recurrent heart attack.”

“Sleep apnea is a very treatable disease, and patients see such tremendous benefits in their quality of life.  The clinical benefits include reduction of the risk of heart attack and relief in symptoms.”

For more information, or a brochure regarding the Hillside Hospital Sleep Medicine Center, call Brian Marks at 424-4580.

At the 8th Otolaryngology Exhibition and Conference, Royal Philips Electronics is demonstrating, for the second year in a row, its most recent innovative range of Sleep Diagnostics and Therapy Solutions. The event will take place in Dubai from the 8th – 10th of May at the Joharah ballroom in Madinat Jumeirah.

“There are a number of potential causes for a disturbed night’s sleep. These include sleep disorders such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which affects approximately 4% of the adult population,” says Diederik Zeven, General Manager of Philips Healthcare Middle East. “It’s a disorder characterized by airway collapse behind the tongue during sleep, which obstructs breathing. If untreated, it can contribute to the development of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes,” he adds.

As a global leader in the management of sleep disorders, Philips Healthcare has developed a wide range of products and solutions, from diagnostic tools through patient-centered sleep therapy devices, to help enhance the quality of sleep and thereby improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Read the rest of this entry

The Canadian Thoracic Society released new guidelines on sleep disordered breathing, which provide the latest recommendations for sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment. The guidelines are created for health-care professionals by physicians who are experts in sleep disordered breathing. They are designed to keep health-care professionals up to date on the most recent evidence about how to diagnose and manage sleep apnea.

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a serious breathing disorder that causes sufferers to have dozens or hundreds of breathing pauses or “apneas” per night. These repeated periods of breathing pauses during sleep and the chronic sleep deprivation they cause have both physical and psychological consequences. People with untreated sleep apnea are more likely to have motor vehicle crashes, hypertension, and heart attacks, irregular heart beat stroke, depression, impotence and diabetes. Read the rest of this entry

If you have the disorder, you’re not breathing properly while you sleep because your airflow is blocked repeatedly throughout the night. Nearly one in four men and one in ten women suffer from it. (There are a couple of other varieties, but OSA is the most common.) And it goes hand-in-hand with type 2 diabetes. In a survey on the subject, Gary D. Foster, PhD, wrote that, “among all of the sleep disorders, OSA has the strongest association with type 2 diabetes.”  That’s even taking into account other risk factors, such as weight, sex and age.

The main risk factor for OSA is obesity. “Excess weight deposits extra fat around the thorax, reducing chest compliance and functional capacity, while increasing oxygen demand,” wrote Foster, a professor of medicine and public health and the Director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University. Read the rest of this entry