Mayo Researchers Describe New Type Of Sleep Apnea

[BuddyLeesWife]

I know I am harping on the Sleep Apnea topic but here is another interesting research article from Mayo.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/545231

Mayo Researchers Describe New Type of Sleep Apnea

Susan Jeffrey

Medscape Medical News 2006. ? 2006 Medscape

September 28, 2006 ? Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have further characterized what they're calling complex sleep apnea syndrome (CompSAS), a condition that appears distinct from both obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central sleep apnea (CSA).

Complex sleep apnea has clinical symptoms similar to obstructive sleep apnea, with snoring and daytime sleepiness, some sleep interruptions, and probably the same cardiovascular risks, lead author Timothy I. Morgenthaler, MD, assistant professor and consultant in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, told Medscape. "However, it is different from OSA in that it is not easily treated with CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure]," the standard treatment for sleep apnea.

And further in the abstract:

"Our future studies will be to see what forms of treatment work best in these patients," Dr. Morgenthaler said. Their findings also shed some light on the nature of OSA, the most common sleep apnea, he told Medscape. "For a long time, physicians have been considering OSA as a primarily anatomic disease," stemming from a narrow upper airway, he said. "However, this study adds to a growing and more elegant body of knowledge that the brain's control of respiration is abnormal in OSA, not just the anatomy. I think that as we understand the underlying causes of OSA better, we will be able to devise better treatments, ones that go beyond just improving the openness of the airway."