Relationships between headache and sleep in a non-clinical population of children and adolescents.

Background: Headache and sleep are related in different ways and alterations of chronobiological mechanisms are involved in headache. We investigated the relationships between headache and sleep quality in a large non-clinical population of children and adolescents and evaluated the relationship between headache and circadian typologies.

Methods: A total of 1073 children and adolescents (50.

Sleep in children with autistic spectrum disorder: a questionnaire and polysomnographic study.

Objective: To evaluate sleep in children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) by means of sleep questionnaires and polysomnography; moreover, to analyze their cyclic alternating pattern (CAP).

Methods: Thirty-one patients with ASD (28 males, 3 females, aged 3.7-19 years) and age-matched normal controls were included.

Sleep habits and circadian preference in Italian children and adolescents.

Sleep habits and circadian preference (morningness/eveningness, M/E) have been extensively analyzed in adolescents and young adults, while few studies were conducted on children and early adolescents. Aim of the present study was to investigate the developmental changes of circadian preference and to analyze its relationship with sleep habits, sleep problems and circadian preference in a large sample by means of a school-based survey. One thousand seventy-three participants (50.

Reduced NREM sleep instability in children with sleep disordered breathing.

Study Objectives: To evaluate NREM sleep instability, as measured by the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP), in a cohort of children with mild sleep disordered breathing (SDB) or frank obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and normal controls.

Design: Prospective study.

Settings: Sleep laboratory in academic center.

Different periodicity and time structure of leg movements during sleep in narcolepsy/cataplexy and restless legs syndrome.

Study Objectives: To analyze periodic leg movements (PLM) during sleep in patients with narcolepsy and compare the results with those obtained in normal controls and subjects with restless legs syndrome (RLS).

Methods: We recruited 40 HLA DQB1*0602-positive patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy, 22 with RLS, and 22 controls. The time structure of their polysomnographically recorded LMs was analyzed by means of an approach particularly able to consider their periodicity.

Small-world network organization of functional connectivity of EEG slow-wave activity during sleep.

Objective: To analyze the functional connectivity patterns of the EEG slow-wave activity during the different sleep stages and Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) conditions, using concepts derived from Graph Theory.

Methods: We evaluated spatial patterns of EEG slow-wave synchronization between all possible pairs of electrodes (19) placed over the scalp of 10 sleeping healthy young normal subjects using two graph theoretical measures: the clustering coefficient (Cp) and the characteristic path length (Lp). The measures were obtained during the different sleep stages and CAP conditions from the real EEG connectivity networks and randomized control (surrogate) networks (Cp-s and Lp-s).

Regional scalp EEG slow-wave synchronization during sleep cyclic alternating pattern A1 subtypes.

The levels of EEG synchronization, in the 0.25-2.5 Hz band, during the A1 subtypes of the sleep "cyclic alternating pattern" (CAP) were measured in five healthy subjects by means of the synchronization likelihood (SL) algorithm.

NREM sleep instability is reduced in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Study Objectives: To evaluate non-rapid eye movement sleep instability (NREM), as measured by the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP), in a cohort of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal controls.

Design: Prospective study.

Settings: Sleep laboratory.

New approaches to the study of periodic leg movements during sleep in restless legs syndrome.

Study Objectives: To describe a new approach for the analysis of quantity, type, and periodicity of the leg motor activity during sleep in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) and periodic leg movements (PLM).

Methods: The following parameters were taken into account for LM: duration, amplitude, area under the curve, sleep stage, side, interval, and bilaterality. The analysis of inter-LM intervals was carried out by drawing their distribution graphs.

The time structure of the cyclic alternating pattern during sleep.

Study Objectives: To analyze the intervals between A phases of the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) and to describe their time structure. This might represent an additional aspect to be studied in sleep pathologies that are accompanied by CAP changes.

Methods: Sleep stages and CAP A phases were identified in polysomnographic night recordings of normal adults and children.

Waist circumference predicts the occurrence of sleep-disordered breathing in obese children and adolescents: a questionnaire-based study.

Background And Purpose: To assess the presence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in a population of obese children and adolescents and to investigate the role of fat distribution in predicting SDB.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and thirty-two obese children and adolescents, aged 5.0-14.

Sleep disturbances and teacher ratings of school achievement and temperament in children.

Background: The current study examined the relationships between academic achievement, sleep, temperament and demographic-historical data in school-age children.

Methods: Teachers were asked to fill out the teacher temperament questionnaire and a form for school achievement, while mothers filled out a demographic-historical form and the sleep disturbance scale for children (SDSC), a 26-item questionnaire that consisted of six factors: difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS), sleep breathing disorders (SBD), arousal disorders (DA), sleep-wake transition disorders (SWTD), disorders of excessive somnolence (DOES), sleep hyperhydrosis (SHY). From a sample of 380 school children, 264 (70%) were suitable for the analyses (141 M and 123 F aged 8-11 years, mean 9.

Dynamics of the EEG slow-wave synchronization during sleep.

Objective: To study the dynamics of spatial synchronization of the slow-wave activity recorded from different scalp electrodes during sleep in healthy normal controls.

Methods: We characterized the different levels of EEG synchronization during sleep (in the 0.25-2.

NREM sleep alterations in narcolepsy/cataplexy.

Objective: NREM sleep patterns of narcoleptic patients with cataplexy were studied, focusing on their sleep 'microstructure', by analyzing the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP).

Methods: Forty-nine HLA DQB1*0602-positive patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy (32 men and 17 women, aged 18-46 years) were included together with 37 age-matched normal controls. Each subject underwent one polysomnographic night recording after an adaptation night.

Computer-assisted detection of nocturnal leg motor activity in patients with restless legs syndrome and periodic leg movements during sleep.

Study Objectives: To assess the performance of a new method for automatic detection of periodic leg movements during sleep.

Methods: Leg movements during sleep were visually detected in the tibialis anterior muscles recordings of 15 patients with restless legs syndrome and 15 normal controls. Leg movements were detected automatically by means of a new computer method with which electromyogram signals are first digitally band-pass filtered and then rectified; subsequently, the detection of leg movements is performed by using 2 thresholds: one for the starting point and another to detect the end point of each leg movement.

Sleep breathing and periodic leg movement pattern in Angelman Syndrome: a polysomnographic study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep breathing patterns and to detect the eventual presence of periodic leg movements (PLMs) in patients affected by Angelman syndrome (AS).

Methods: Ten children with AS were recruited to participate in the study; the clinical diagnosis was confirmed by the genetic analysis (maternal 15q deletion, uniparental paternal disomy, or mutation of the UBE3A gene). All patients but two had presented epileptic seizures.

Sleep cyclic alternating pattern in normal preschool-aged children.

Study Objectives: To evaluate the characteristics of the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) in the sleep of preschool-aged children in order to obtain normative parameters in this age range.

Design: Prospective study.

Settings: University sleep laboratory.

All-night EEG power spectral analysis of the cyclic alternating pattern components in young adult subjects.

Objective: To analyze in detail the frequency content of the different EEG components of the Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP), taking into account the ongoing EEG background and the nonCAP (NCAP) periods in the whole night polysomnographic recordings of normal young adults.

Methods: Sixteen normal healthy subjects were included in this study. Each subject underwent one polysomnographic night recording; sleep stages were scored following standard criteria.

Inter-rater reliability of sleep cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) scoring and validation of a new computer-assisted CAP scoring method.

Objective: To assess inter-rater reliability between different scorers, from different qualified sleep research groups, in scoring visually the Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP), to evaluate the performances of a new tool for the computer-assisted detection of CAP, and to compare its output with the data from the different scorers.

Methods: CAP was scored in 11 normal sleep recordings by four different raters, coming from three sleep laboratories. CAP was also scored in the same recordings by means of a new computer-assisted method, implemented in the Hypnolab 1.

Topographic mapping of the spectral components of the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP).

Background And Purpose: The aim of this study was to define quantitatively the spectrum content of the sleep pattern termed 'cyclic alternating pattern' (CAP) A phases, their scalp topography and their probable cortical generators, by using data from sleep polygraphic recordings that included a large number of scalp EEG channels.

Patients And Methods: Polysomnographic recording that include 19 EEG channels were obtained from 5 normal healthy young controls. After sleep staging, for each subject, 5 different CAP A phase subtype epochs were selected, which served for subsequent analysis.

Chronic daily headache in childhood and adolescence: clinical aspects and a 4-year follow-up.

Chronic daily headache (CDH) represents a challenge in clinical practice and the scientific field. CDH with onset in children and adolescents represent a matchless opportunity to understand mechanisms involved in adult CDH. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnosis, prognosis and psychiatric co-morbidity of CDH with young onset in the young.

[Tic disorders and arousal dysfunction: clinical evaluation of 49 children and adolescents].

Aim: Tourette Syndrome (TS) shows a significant comorbidity with obsessive-compulsive disorders, behavioral problems (i.e. attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders) and sleep disturbances.

[Evaluation of the results after 5 year from a vertical banded gastroplasty: our experience].

Background And Aims: vertical banded gastroplasty (GPV) is the most frequently performed restrictive procedure for morbid obesity, but long-term follow-up is almost nonexistent. A poor outcome after GPV and a low quality of life has been reported. The aim of the study was to determine long-term outcome after 5 years follow-up.