Study author Dr. Rebecca Sippel, chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health admits that obstructive sleep apnea is a complex sleep disorder that can be caused by several factors. Be that as it may, the researchers found that “thyroidectomy alone can provide significant improvements in nearly a third of patients, regardless of gland size”.

The study was slated for presentation at the recently-concluded annual meeting of the American Thyroid Association in California.

In this study, researchers compared the symptoms in patients suffering from symptoms before and 8 weeks after the surgery was performed. These symptoms included snoring, interrupted breathing during sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness. Post-surgery results revealed significant improvement both in terms of severity and frequency (51% vs. 71%).

Read this interesting story at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_118088.html

Samuel Krachman, D.O. , professor of medicine and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital  has recently led a team of researchers for  finding a relief device for back sleepers affected by positional sleep apnea. The team has come up with a device called Zzoma, which is in the form of a chest belt with the actual device on the back. The device is firm but made from foam wrapped in canvas to prevent the user from moving on their back.

Former Temple Fellow Joseph G. Crocetti who is also the creator of the device and Krachman have worked together and have found that this device is less obtrusive and more convenient to use than traditional CPAP device.

Already successful with patients during the past year, the researchers are awaiting FDA approval for the device.

Read the full story at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926105027.htm

There is now a novel oral device called Sonomat, which is essentially a type of Mandibular Advancement Splints (MAS) that effectively reduces AHI, or Apnea- Hypopnea Index (average number of breathing pauses happening in an hour) from 10.3 events per hour to 3.8 events per hour. The device can be effective for patients suffering between moderate and severe OSA.

Sonomat is a portable, self-administered and n unobtrusive device that has sensors fitted within a mattress. Such sensors are designed to measure AHI by recording snoring, breathing and body movements. The percentile reduction of patients who snored also reduced from 38 (without MAS) to 15% (with MAS).

To know more about this device, visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110613094042.htm

Adaptive Servo Ventilation is a special ventilation therapy that monitors and responds to breathing patterns. It also continuously analyzes the patient’s breathing pattern on a breath-by-breath basis and stores the information in a built-in computer. As a result it can immediately sense when the breathing is becoming unstable or when there is a cessation in breathing.

When sleep apnea occurs, the ASV adjusts the air pressure as needed to maintain normal breathing pattern, it responds with air pressure that mimics approximately 90% of the person’s normal breathing.  When the sleep apnea episode ends, it slowly minimizes provision of air pressure to just enough support to help keep the airways open and provides approximately 50% reduction in the work of breathing.

There was a very sad post on SleepGuide.com recently that serves as a wake-up call for all of us.

The poster announces that someone her daughter knows just died as a result of his sleep apnea. The person who died went without oxygen to his brain for almost 30 minutes, and despite the efforts of the EMTs he could not be revived. He hadn’t treated his apnea.

Link to the full post (and responses by others in the forum) is here.

Moral of this sad story: if you have sleep apnea, don’t delay in getting it treated!

Too many people think they’ll “just let it go”, and the apnea will cure itself. It won’t.

According to the researchers, OSA is implicated in sudden cardiac death because “low oxygen alters the blood vessels in a way that promotes heart disease”.

The study was carried out on nearly 11,000 people over a period of 15 years.

I’ve been trying to find a link to the complete study, but haven’t managed to find anything. You can take a look at the press release for the study here:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-rst/5074.html

And here’s a quick YouTube video where Dr.�Virend Somers discusses the link between OSA and heart attacks: