Stroke prevention study

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OSA Patients Show Silent Brain Infarction Lesions
Research appearing in the second issue for March 2007 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society, finds another harmful ailment associated with OSA—cerebrovascular disease. The findings came with positive news though, as the researchers also found that nasal CPAP could reduce the risk of this disease.

The research finds that patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea who have significantly higher serum levels of inflammatory markers that serve as precursors to coronary artery disease, as well as lesions associated with silent brain infarction, have an elevated risk of stroke.

Kenji Minoguchi, MD, PhD, of Showa University School of Medicine in Tokyo, and nine associates studied silent brain infarction (brain tissue death from lack of blood supply) in 50 male patients with OSA. The researchers also examined the effects of 3 months of treatment with nasal CPAP on serum inflammatory marker levels in 24 male patients who had moderate to severe OSA.

According to the authors, the occurrence of stroke in patients with OSA is likely preceded by subclinical cerebrovascular disease, or silent brain infarction, which is detectable with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The lesions identified as silent brain infarction were either wedge-shaped or round and showed up in brain white matter on MRI scans.

“The percentage of silent brain infarction in patients with moderate to severe OSA at 25% was higher than that for obese control subjects at 6.7%, or even patients with mild OSA who had 7.7%,” Minoguchi said.

The researchers found that use of nasal CPAP significantly lowered serum levels of C-reactive protein and the levels of the two platelet-activating proteins, all associated with cerebrovascular disease.

“As a result, nCPAP [nasal CPAP] may be an important treatment intervention for decreasing the cerebrovascular risk in this susceptible population of obstructive sleep apnea patients,” Minoguchi said.



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Bump for a fantastic article! Brain damage from oxygen deprivation...due to untreated apnea.

Thanks!

Reading this article should give each of us a renewed resolve to do and try out whatever it takes to ensure we are xpap compliant.

Alisha

SleepGuy wrote:Bump for a fantastic article! Brain damage from oxygen deprivation...due to untreated apnea.

Thanks!

Yep ... I now know why I don't shine as bright as I should ... and all this time I thought it was due to my experimentation with recreational drugs during my late teens and early twenties. Now if they could just come up with some PAP-like treatment to quiet the ringing in my ears from all those rock concerts I went to