Cerebral Hemodynamics in Sleep Apnea and Actigraphy-Determined Sleep Duration in a Sample of the Hispanic Community Health Study/ Study of Latinos.

Study Objectives: We sought to evaluate cerebral hemodynamics in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and actigraphy-defined short sleep duration using transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) blood flow velocity in a subsample of Hispanics/Latinos without stroke and cardiovascular disease.

Methods: The sample consisted of consecutive participants at the Miami site of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) with overnight home sleep testing and 7 days of wrist actigraphy in the Sueño sleep ancillary study. Ninety-five participants had sleep data and TCD determined cerebral hemodynamics. We evaluated the association between OSA (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] ≥ 5 events/h) and short sleep duration (< 6.8 hours; sample median) with cerebral blood flow velocities (CBFV) and pulsatility index (PI) for the middle cerebral (MCA) and basilar arteries (BA).

Results: Median age was 48 years (range 20-64) with 71% females. Twenty-eight percent of the sample had OSA (AHI ≥ 5 events/h) with median AHI of 10.0 (range 5.0-51.7) events/h. In unadjusted analyses, participants with OSA had lower median CBFV in the BA (30.5 cm/s [interquartile range:10.2] versus 39.4 cm/s [13.3] < .05), but not the MCA, whereas short sleepers had higher median vascular resistance in the MCA (PI = 0.92 [0.18] versus 0.86 [0.14] < .05) and BA (PI = 1.0 [0.17] versus 0.93 [0.24] < .05). After full adjustment, OSA was associated with decreased CBFV (β [SE] = -5.1 [2.5] < .05) in the BA. Short sleep was associated with increased PI (β [SE] = 0.05 [0.02] < .05) in the MCA.

Conclusions: In this sample of Hispanic/Latinos, OSA was associated with decreased daytime blood flow velocity in the BA, whereas actigraphy-defined short sleep duration was associated with increased cerebrovascular pulsatility in the MCA.