Canessa et al observed 17 people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea and 15 age-matched healthy controls, performing sleep studies, cognitive testing, and MRIs on all. At baseline, OSA patients had shrinkage in brain areas responsible for memory and executive function (hippocampus, posterior parietal cortex, and superior frontal gyrus, as quantitated by voxel based morphometry) and were neurocognitively impaired [... read more]
Kuna et al randomized 296 veterans with suspected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to home sleep testing with a type 3 portable monitor followed by auto-titrating CPAP, or in-lab polysomnography and CPAP titration. After 3 months of CPAP treatment (in the 260 or 88% overall who did have OSA), surveyed functional outcomes were identical between groups, [... read more]
Parra et al diagnosed OSA in 140 patients hospitalized for stroke in Spain and randomized them to nasal auto-titrating CPAP or no therapy. The CPAP-treated patients had better Rankin and Canadian stroke outcome scores at all follow-up visits. They had the same rate of subsequent cardiovascular events, but events occurred at a median 15 months [... read more]
Nocturnal monitoring of home non-invasive ventilation: Janssens JP, Thorax 2011;66:438-445. Sleep and obesity hypoventilation review.
Non-CPAP therapies in obstructive sleep apnea, European Respiratory Society task force statement. ERJ 2011;37:1000-1028. Sleep review, OSA review.
Sleep medicine training across the spectrum, Strohl KP, CHEST 2011;139:1221-1231. Sleep review.
Patients taking pramipexole for 6 months had a 14-point fall in their IRLS score, and 59% “responded” (had at least a 50% fall in their score). But time worked well, too: placebo patients had an 11-point decline in scores and 43% responded. So 1 in 6 responded to pramipexole, practically speaking (they don’t say this, [... read more]
Fen-phen died in court, but phenteramine was cleared of all serious charges. Gadde et al report phase III results for Qnexa (by Vivus), a phenteramine-topiramate combination. Over 56 weeks, takers of a double-dose of study drug lost 10 kg; single-dose, 8 kg; and placebo, 1.4 kg. There were plenty of side effects (dry mouth and paresthesias [... read more]
Gooneratne et al selected 289 people over 65 (nondemented, nondepressed), half of whom had excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). All got polysomnograms and were followed for a mean of 14 years. Those with EDS and sleep disordered breathing (SDB) had a hazard ratio for mortality of 2.7, that fell to 2.3 after adjusting for covariates. People [... read more]
Sleep medicine, a 3,000-year history: Kirsch DB, CHEST 2011;139:939-946.
Lettieri et al prospectively observed 210 patients with obstructive sleep apnea, who were diagnosed & titrated in-lab or at home. Those who were diagnosed and titrated at home and managed through their primary care clinic had equivalent adherence with CPAP therapy (~70% of nights; ~4.5 hrs/night; regular use ~52%) to those diagnosed and titrated in-lab [... read more]
Depriving young and old adults (n=16) of sleep for 24 hours, Robillard et al report that the elderly (mean 64 years) had increased systolic blood pressure and orthostasis, compared to the young people. Sleep 2011;34:online.
Re-heating data from the APPLES study, Quan et al report that in a cohort of 1,204 adults with OSA randomized to sham or real CPAP and followed longitudinally, there was little detectable difference in cognitive functioning after treatment or sham treatment, suggesting untreated OSA has little effect on cognitive function. Sleep 2011;34:online.
Normal sleep in African-Americans and Caucasians: Ruiter ME, Sleep Medicine 2011;12:209-214. Race & racial differences in sleep review.
Chai-Coetzer et al designed and validated a predictive model for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea without polysomnography in 157 general primary care patients considered at average risk for obstructive sleep apnea. Berlin/Epworth questionnaires, snoring, waist size, witnessed apneas and age were fit into an algorithm, followed by home oximetry in a sample of mostly high-Berlin-scoring patients. [... read more]
Using Medicare records from more than 30,000 beneficiaries with congestive heart failure, Javaheri et al suggest in this observational epidemiologic study that sleep apnea may be woefully overlooked and undertreated in people with CHF. The 2% of the cohort who were tested and treated for sleep apnea had one-third the 2-year mortality of their risk-matched [... read more]
Priou et al followed 130 patients with OHS after initiation with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation. Mean follow up was 4 years. Most (96) were started on NPPV in the stable state; 38 had had an acute hypercapneic exacerbation. Survival at 1 year was 97.5%; 2 years (93%); 3 years (88%); 5 years (77%). The large [... read more]