Regional brain iron mapping in obstructive sleep apnea adults.

Purpose: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) subjects show significant white matter injury, including myelin changes in several brain areas, potentially from impaired glial cells, contributing to increased iron levels that escalate neurodegeneration, but brain iron loads are unclear. Our aim was to examine regional brain iron load, using T2∗-relaxometry, in OSA adults before and after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment over controls.

Methods: We performed T2∗-weighted imaging using a 3.

A First Look at Childhood Abuse in Women with Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Women who experienced childhood sexual abuse have higher rates of obesity, a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We assessed if prior childhood sexual abuse was more common in women with OSA vs. control, with possible mediation by obesity.

Brain tissue integrity mapping in adults with obstructive sleep apnea using T1-weighted and T2-weighted images.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is accompanied by both gray and white matter differences in brain areas that regulate autonomic, cognitive, and mood functions, which are deficient in the condition. Such tissue changes have been examined through diffusion tensor and diffusion kurtosis imaging-based procedures. However, poor in-plane spatial resolution of these techniques precludes precise determination of the extent of tissue injury.

Machine learning approach for obstructive sleep apnea screening using brain diffusion tensor imaging.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) show autonomic, mood, cognitive, and breathing dysfunctions that are linked to increased morbidity and mortality, which can be improved with early screening and intervention. The gold standard and other available methods for OSA diagnosis are complex, require whole-night data, and have significant wait periods that potentially delay intervention. Our aim was to examine whether using faster and less complicated machine learning models, including support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF), with brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data can classify OSA from healthy controls.

Relationships between brain tissue damage, oxygen desaturation, and disease severity in obstructive sleep apnea evaluated by diffusion tensor imaging.

Study Objectives: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) show brain injury in sites responsible for autonomic, cognitive, and respiratory functions. Brain changes in OSA may vary with disease severity as assessed by the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which does not provide information about the apnea depth and length in contrast to oxygen desaturation. Although significant associations with brain injury and AHI are known in OSA, it is unclear whether AHI or the extent of oxygen desaturations better correlate with brain damage.

Baroreflex sensitivity during rest and pressor challenges in obstructive sleep apnea patients with and without CPAP.

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increases sympathetic vasoconstrictor drive and reduces baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), the degree to which blood pressure changes modify cardiac output. Whether nighttime continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) corrects BRS in the awake state in OSA remains unclear. We assessed spontaneous BRS using non-invasive continuous BP and ECG recordings at rest and during handgrip and Valsalva challenges, maneuvers that increase vasoconstrictor drive with progressively higher BP, in untreated OSA (unOSA), CPAP-treated OSA (cpOSA) and healthy (CON) participants.

Impaired Glymphatic System Actions in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Adults.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is accompanied by sleep fragmentation and altered sleep architecture, which can potentially hinder the glymphatic system, increasing risks for Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the status is unclear in OSA. Our aim was to investigate the glymphatic system in OSA subjects and examine the relationships between OSA disease severity, sleep symptoms, and glymphatic system indices in OSA using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

Methods: We acquired DTI data from 59 OSA and 62 controls using a 3.

Brain regional homogeneity changes after short-term positive airway pressure treatment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) reveal functional changes in brain sites involved in autonomic, cognitive, and mood regulations. However, it is unclear whether these brain changes reverse with short-term positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment. Our aim was to examine brain functional changes in response to 3-months of PAP treatment using regional homogeneity (ReHo) measures, where increased and decreased ReHo value indicates hyper- and hypo-local neural activities, respectively, and considered as functional deficits.

Inspiratory Muscle Training for Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Protocol Development and Feasibility of Home Practice by Sedentary Adults.

Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) may improve respiratory and cardiovascular functions in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and is a potential alternative or adjunct treatment to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). IMT protocols were originally designed for athletes, however, we found some OSA patients could not perform the exercise, so we aimed for a more OSA-friendly protocol. Our feasibility criteria included (1) participants successfully managing the technique at home; (2) participants completing daily practice sessions and recording data logs; and (3) capturing performance plateaus to determine an optimal length of the intervention.

Breathing rate variability in obstructive sleep apnea during wakefulness.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is defined by pauses in breathing during sleep, but daytime breathing dysregulation may also be present. Sleep may unmask breathing instability in OSA that is usually masked by behavioral influences during wakefulness. A breath-hold (BH) challenge has been used to demonstrate breathing instability.

Stress in obstructive sleep apnea.

People with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) often have psychological symptoms including depression and anxiety, which are commonly treated with anti-depression or anti-anxiety interventions. Psychological stress is a related symptom with different intervention targets that may also improve mental state, but this symptom is not well characterized in OSA. We therefore aimed to describe stress in relation to other psychological symptoms.

Which came first, obstructive sleep apnoea or hypertension? A retrospective study of electronic records over 10 years, with separation by sex.

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a risk factor for hypertension (HTN), but the clinical progression of OSA to HTN is unclear. There are also sex differences in prevalence, screening and symptoms of OSA. Our objective was to estimate the time from OSA to HTN diagnoses in females and males.

Insular functional organization during handgrip in females and males with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: Brain regulation of autonomic function in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is disrupted in a sex-specific manner, including in the insula, which may contribute to several comorbidities. The insular gyri have anatomically distinct functions with respect to autonomic nervous system regulation; yet, OSA exerts little effect on the organization of insular gyral responses to sympathetic components of an autonomic challenge, the Valsalva. We further assessed neural responses of insular gyri in people with OSA to a static handgrip task, which principally involves parasympathetic withdrawal.

Beat-to-beat blood pressure variability in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: Cardiovascular comorbidities in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are difficult to treat, perhaps due to autonomic dysfunction. We assessed beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) variability (BPV) in OSA while considering other markers derived from electrocardiogram and continuous BP signals.

Methods: We studied 66 participants (33 participants with OSA: respiratory event index [mean ± SEM]: 21.

Efficacy of a patient decision aid for improving person-centered decision-making by older adults with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: Person-centered obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) care is a collaborative approach that is respectful of an individual's health priorities. Informed decision-making is essential to person-centered care, especially as patients age. In a feasibility study, we evaluated the effects of a new decision aid (Decide2Rest) on OSA treatment decision-making in older adults.

Functional organization of the insula in men and women with obstructive sleep apnea during Valsalva.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients show impaired autonomic regulation, perhaps related to functional reorganization of the insula, which in healthy individuals shows sex-specific anterior and right dominance during sympathetic activation. We examined insular organization of responses to a Valsalva maneuver in OSA with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Methods: We studied 43 newly diagnosed OSA (age mean ± SD: 46.

Correlations between Waist and Neck Circumferences and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Characteristics.

Purpose: The body mass index (BMI), an estimate of body fat, provides a rather imprecise indication of risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We examined whether other measures, including waist and neck circumference, provide improved indicators of risk in treatment-naïve OSA subjects.

Methods: We studied 59 OSA subjects [age, 48.

A 67-Year-Old Man With Palpitations During Sleep.

A 67-year-old man with a history of atrial fibrillation (AF) presented to his physician with symptoms of episodic, nighttime palpitations and excessive daytime sleepiness. Four years prior he underwent radiofrequency ablation after a confirmed diagnosis of AF with subsequent resolution of his palpitations. His palpitations returned approximately 1 year following the ablation.

Sex-specific hippocampus volume changes in obstructive sleep apnea.

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients show hippocampal-related autonomic and neurological symptoms, including impaired memory and depression, which differ by sex, and are mediated in distinct hippocampal subfields. Determining sites and extent of hippocampal sub-regional injury in OSA could reveal localized structural damage linked with OSA symptoms.

Methods: High-resolution T1-weighted images were collected from 66 newly-diagnosed, untreated OSA (mean age ± SD: 46.

Altered resting-state hippocampal and caudate functional networks in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Introduction: Brain structural injury and metabolic deficits in the hippocampus and caudate nuclei may contribute to cognitive and emotional deficits found in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. If such contributions exist, resting-state interactions of these subcortical sites with cortical areas mediating affective symptoms and cognition should be disturbed. Our aim was to examine resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of the hippocampus and caudate to other brain areas in OSA relative to control subjects, and to relate these changes to mood and neuropsychological scores.

Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with altered midbrain chemical concentrations.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is accompanied by altered structure and function in cortical, limbic, brainstem, and cerebellar regions. The midbrain is relatively unexamined, but contains many integrative nuclei which mediate physiological functions that are disrupted in OSA. We therefore assessed the chemistry of the midbrain in OSA in this exploratory study.

Patient-Reported Usability of Positive Airway Pressure Equipment Is Associated With Adherence in Older Adults.

Study Objectives: To examine the usability of positive airway pressure (PAP) devices and its association with PAP adherence among older adults with sleep-disordered breathing.

Methods: We mailed questionnaires to patients aged ≥65 years prescribed PAP therapy during the prior 36 months from two large healthcare systems. Survey participants completed the Usability of Sleep Apnea Equipment-Positive Airway Pressure (USE-PAP) questionnaire, which assessed the usability of their PAP device.

Non-Gaussian Diffusion Imaging Shows Brain Myelin and Axonal Changes in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is accompanied by brain changes in areas that regulate autonomic, cognitive, and mood functions, which were initially examined by Gaussian-based diffusion tensor imaging measures, but can be better assessed with non-Gaussian measures. We aimed to evaluate axonal and myelin changes in OSA using axial (AK) and radial kurtosis (RK) measures.

Materials And Methods: We acquired diffusion kurtosis imaging data from 22 OSA and 26 controls; AK and RK maps were calculated, normalized, smoothed, and compared between groups using analysis of covariance.

Accelerated Echo Planer J-resolved Spectroscopic Imaging of Putamen and Thalamus in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Unlabelled: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) leads to neurocognitive and autonomic deficits that are partially mediated by thalamic and putamen pathology. We examined the underlying neurochemistry of those structures using compressed sensing-based 4D echo-planar J-resolved spectroscopic imaging (JRESI), and quantified values with prior knowledge fitting. Bilaterally increased thalamic mI/Cr, putamen Glx/Cr, and Glu/Cr, and bilaterally decreased thalamic and putamen tCho/Cr and GABA/Cr occurred in OSAS vs healthy subjects (p < 0.