Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has received a $3.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to study sleep apnea as a possible cause of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most commonly diagnosed type of arrhythmia, or irregular heart rhythm.

AF is characterized by an abnormally rapid heart rate that can inhibit blood flow, and raise the risk of stroke and heart failure. The five-year, NHLBI grant will enable researchers to study how sleep apnea, a treatable disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, produces functional and structural changes in the heart that may well contribute to the development of AF. Read the rest of this entry

The safety and effectiveness of sleep apnea equipment will be examined,evaluated, and determined with the help of a research study conducted by Winston-Salem Company.

Winston-Salem announced that  it has received approval to begin a clinical study to evaluate the  safety and effectiveness of the Apnex hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation (HGNS) System. The device is used to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

PMG will be one of the first medical centers in the country to participate in this study. “Many people who suffer from OSA are unable to tolerate existing therapies such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The HGNS System provides a new approach to the treatment of OSA. This study will help us  further understand what role this device could have in treating the millions of people who suffer from OSA,” said the study’s co-principal investigator. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep Group Solutions (SGS) a leader in dental continuing education takes  pride in offering dentists top level courses on dental sleep medicine.  With an increase in sleep apnea research and  studies, Sleep Group Solutions plans to double courses offered to dentists  interested in screening and treating sleep apnea in 2012.

Recent  studies from the Journal of the American Medical Association prove sleep apnea  linking to dementia in women.  Breathing disorders, such as sleep apnea are  getting more attention and research in the medical field, and now the dental  field has perked an interest.  Dentists are filling class rooms across the  US to gain dental  continuing education on how to screen and treat sleep apnea in house,  through oral appliance therapy.   Sleep Group Solutions continues to  provide dentists with the education needed to treat OSA.  ” In 2011 we  offered the dental community 50 courses to choose from.  With such an  increased demand from the dental community, we are planning to offer around 70  for 2012,”  John Nadeau, VP Sleep Group Solutions. Read the rest of this entry

This experimental device from Maple Grove-based Inspire Medical is designed to tame symptoms of sleep apnea. Not approved for general use in the U.S., the device is the subject of a new study involving two medical centers in Minnesota. (Courtesy to Pioneer Press: Inspire Medical)

People who struggle with obstructive sleep apnea often find that the leading treatment for the condition can make it just as tough to sleep.

Patients undergoing continuous positive airway pressure therapy – called CPAP, for short – must try to sleep while wearing a mask hooked to a bedside machine. The device pushes air through the mask to open the user’s airway, but many patients find the treatment itself is difficult to tolerate.

That frustrating trade-off is a key reason why two companies in the Twin Cities and another in California are racing to develop pacemaker-style equipment that could provide an alternative. The devices stimulate a nerve that controls tongue movement in hopes of preventing the tongue from blocking the airway during sleep.

The devices are being tested in research studies and – in a best-case scenario – wouldn’t be widely available in the United States for a few years. Even so, manufacturers will showcase their research this week at a meeting of sleep experts in Minneapolis. Doctors and analysts say the technological dream is not yet reality. [Read Complete Post By By Christopher Snowbeck ...  ] 

At Western Psychiatric Institute, one of the top sleep research centers in the country, medical professionals are using sleep deprivation to help people with insomnia, a condition where the brain is hyper-aroused 24 hours a day.

“We shorten their time in bed and make the sleep more consolidated and deeper,” said the center’s Dr. Dan Buysse. “The obvious and deceptive answer is get more sleep, there is not a substitute for sleep.”

At Stat Medevac, where pilots work 12-hour shifts and paramedics and nurses can work up to 24 hours a day, getting enough Zs is part of the job. “It is very important that you sleep well at night. You don’t want to come into this job with three or four hours sleep,” said flight nurse Marion Jones. Read the rest of this entry

Waikato District Health Board, An international sleep research study that requires at least 350 New Zealand volunteers, some at Waikato Hospital and some at Hutt Hospital, may lead to a new medical approach for the treatment of sleep apnea.

The study, known as Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints Study (SAVE), is attempting to discover if the use of continuous positive airway pressure can reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure in patients with sleep apnea.

Michael Hlavac, New Zealand SAVE Coordinator said, “Continuous Positive Airway Pressure is a common treatment for sleep apnea but we don’t know if it can reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure which is associated with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).

“Some research has shown that there may be a relationship between untreated sleep apnea and heart disease, stroke and impaired glucose metabolism (pre-diabetes).”

There are five sites in New Zealand looking for volunteers:

1. North Island: Waikato Hospital, Tauranga Hospital and Hutt Hospital.
2. South Island: Otago Respiratory Research Unit and Canterbury Respiratory Research Group.

5000 people from China, Australia, Brazil and India will be involved in study. Read the rest of this entry

A new report from the American Thoracic Society (ATS), published in the Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society,  identifies barriers preventing incorporation of portable monitor testing into clinical management pathways and recommends research and  development needed to address those barriers. It summarizes the  recommendations of an international workshop sponsored by the ATS, AASM,  the American College of Chest Physicians, and the European Respiratory  Society.

“The consensus of the workshop participants was that outcomes-based  research studies are needed to demonstrate the efficacy and  cost-effectiveness of portable monitor testing,” said Samuel Kuna, MD,  associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and  chief of the Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Section at  Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and chair of the  workshop’s steering committee. “There is also a need to develop clinical  sleep research networks capable of performing large, prospective  studies.”

Recommendations were developed regarding research study design and  methodology that include the need to standardize technology, identify  the patients most appropriate for ambulatory management of obstructive  sleep apnea, ensure patient safety, and identify sources of research  funding. Read the rest of this entry

UVa Health System, Pulmonary and Critical Care Department seeks healthy children, adolescents, and young adults ages 5 to 20, with snoring and possible sleep-related obstructive breathing disorders for a research study.

The purpose of this study is to find out if an experimental portable device, called SoundTrak, can collect data about your breathing at home while you sleep, and determine whether you stop breathing during sleep (called sleep apnea). This data from the SoundTrak would then be compared to the data collected during a standard overnight sleep study at the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) Sleep Lab. Read the rest of this entry

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
Read the rest of this entry

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may blame their daytime difficulties on simple sleepiness, but new research suggests that their brains may be to blame. Specifically, their cognitive challenges may be caused by structural deficits in gray matter, brought on by the intermittent oxygen deprivation that comes with OSA. The good news is that these deficits may be partially or fully reversible with early detection and treatment, according to Italian researchers.

“OSA patients demonstrate several neuropsychological impairments, but current knowledge of the brain structures affected by OSA is limited. This study provides the first evidence that structural brain abnormalities exist in regions susceptible to hypoxemia, and they can change with treatment,” said Vincenza Castronovo, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at the Sleep Disorders Center, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy. Read the rest of this entry

In a recently concluded research the researchers aimed to estimate the population prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in an urban community of German third graders (age range 7.3–12.4 yrs) 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 Hanover, Germany, were selected. 1,144 third graders were screened for symptoms and signs of OSA using questionnaires and nocturnal home pulse oximetry. 183 children underwent abbreviated nocturnal home polysomnography (OSA definition: apnoea/hypopnoea index ?1) and 22 were diagnosed to suffer from OSA. 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

The aim was to test the hypothesis that the blood serum of rats subjected to recurrent airway obstructions mimicking obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) induces early activation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and enhancement of endothelial wound healing.

Methods

We studied 30 control rats and 30 rats subjected to recurrent obstructive apneas (60 per hour, lasting 15 s each, for 5 h). The migration induced in MSC by apneic serum was measured by transwell assays. Read the rest of this entry

Individuals with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are at increased cardiovascular risk, possibly due to SDB-related stresses contributing to atherosclerosis. The research study postulates that pathways associated with a pro-thrombotic potential are up-regulated in SDB.

Methods

Morning and evening plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), morning fibrinogen and morning D-dimer were measured in 537 Cleveland Family Study adults. Piecewise multivariable linear mixed models estimated relative mean change or mean change in the biomarker per 5-unit increase in apnea hyponea index (AHI) in two groups: AHI<15 and AHI15 and hypoxia defined as percentage of sleep time with SaO2<90% (<2%, 2%). Read the rest of this entry