Clinical application of a previously validated pregnancy-specific screening tool for sleep apnea in a cohort with a high prevalence of obesity.

Objective: The purpose of this project was to determine the positive predictive value of existing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) screening tools in clinical use, in a real-world clinical population of gravidae, and to explore the development of a new questionnaire for screening for OSA during pregnancy.

Methods: Pregnant people were administered sleep screening questionnaires as part of routine clinical care. These included Facco's four variable OSA screening tool, the STOP-BANG, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

Continuous positive airway pressure treatment of obstructive sleep apnea and hypertensive complications in high-risk pregnancy.

Purpose: To evaluate whether or not continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment in pregnancies complicated by obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with a decrease in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of perinatal outcomes in women who underwent objective OSA testing and treatment as part of routine clinical care during pregnancy. Where diagnostic criteria for OSA were reached (respiratory event index (REI) ≥ 5 events per hour), patients were offered CPAP therapy.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Pregnancy: Early Lessons From Our Sleep Pregnancy Clinic.

Problem Considered: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is underdiagnosed during pregnancy, but there is strong theoretical and some empiric evidence that treatment may improve obstetric outcomes. Barriers to screening, testing, and treatment are common during pregnancy. The goal of this described intervention was to reduce these barriers and improve detection of OSA in pregnancy.

Clinical implications of circulating tumor cells of breast cancer patients: role of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity.

There is increasing interest in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) due to their purported role in breast cancer metastasis, and their potential as a "liquid biopsy" tool in breast cancer diagnosis and management. There are, however, questions with regards to the reliability and consistency of CTC detection and to the relationship between CTCs and prognosis, which is limiting their clinical utility. There is increasing acceptance that the ability of CTCs to alter from an epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype plays an important role in determining the metastatic potential of these cells.