Active clinical trials for "Apnea"

The aim of this study is to evaluate in a clinical trial a rehabilitation device for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) based on oropharyngeal electrical stimulation, which strengthens the dilating muscles of the upper airway, improves mechanical laryngopharyngeal sensitivity and improves OSA. Furthermore, to perform experimental electrotherapy, nasoendoscopy, polygraphy and polysomnography tests with the device in order to calculate thresholds of functional and sensory intensities on the dilating muscles of the upper airway in patients with OSA. These tests also include the detection of signals that measure breathing events during sleep in patients with OSA in order to use them in the control mechanisms of the electrostimulation device. Assess the effects and safety of the device in a group of five healthy volunteers for preliminary results. Finally, to evaluate in a small group of patients with OSA the device capacity to stimulate the upper-airway dilating muscles and to reduce the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) and oxygen desaturation indices when the electrostimulation device is used over a medium-term period (eight weeks) with morning and evening therapy sessions.

The Pentax-AWS_ system (AWS; Pentax Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) is a new rigid indirect laryngoscope which has an integrated tube passage function. Pentax-AWS improved the laryngeal view and facilitated tracheal intubation in patients with restricted neck motion. The purpose of this clinical trial was to evaluate the relative efficacy of the AWS laryngoscopes when used by experienced anesthetists in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) patients and to compare its performance with the Macintosh laryngoscope.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is considered the gold standard therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, CPAP users sometimes experience pressure-related discomfort. It is thought that lower CPAP pressure may increase comfort and lead to greater treatment adherence. Mandibular advancement splint (MAS) therapy has been shown to be the preferred OSA treatment option among patients. However, MAS therapy is only partially effective in some OSA patients, especially in severe cases. It is thought that a combination of MAS and PAP therapy may benefit patients in which MAS alone is only partially effective. Using MAS and PAP at the same time is called "Dual Therapy". Dual Therapy may allow a lower CPAP pressure to be applied, which may increase patient comfort and therefore increase treatment adherence and overall effectiveness. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of 1 month of Dual Therapy in 30 OSA patients.

Fragmentation of care can lead to poor treatment adherence in patients with chronic medical conditions which can, in turn, lead to adverse health consequences, poor quality of life, and patient dissatisfaction. Poor treatment adherence may be due to lack of sufficient patient education, time delays in delivery of care, lack of adequate healthcare coordination, or difficulty accessing various healthcare providers across a front desk which serves as a "healthcare bottle-neck". Better efficiency in healthcare delivery, with greater connectivity through knowledgeable and trained peer volunteers and inexpensive cell-phones integrated by a smart telephone exchange may alleviate some of the care and communication burden faced by the healthcare system. Specifically, such community health education volunteers ("peer-buddies") who are experienced in managing their disease condition may be able to impart knowledge and confidence to a recently diagnosed patient in a much more personalized manner than that of a group therapy session. An additional important advantage is the peer-buddy's ability to relate to the patient in a manner consistent with their social, ethnic, and cultural believes without language barriers or differences that may stem from socioeconomic strata. We will use sleep apnea as an example condition to test the effect of a peer-buddy helper (combined with the universal availability of personal cell phones) on the problem of poor care coordination and treatment adherence to the "CPAP" treatment for sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a very common condition that affects 7-12% of the US population, and if left untreated, can lead to poor health and even death through its effects on high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and motor vehicle accidents. Fortunately, CPAP therapy can lead to a 3-fold reduction in such consequences, but patient adherence to such CPAP treatment is generally poor. We have recently completed a small study that demonstrated improved usage of CPAP treatment by patients receiving help from a peer-buddy with excellent results. We propose to further enhance the "peer-buddy" community-volunteer concept in our proposed research by combining this with cell-phone technology and a telephone exchange that improves access to healthcare providers, technicians, and home care companies. We hope to show that active community participation by experienced "lay individuals" assisted by the universal availability of cheap cell-phones can improve the reach and effectiveness of our healthcare system in improving the health and well-being of our patients. If successful, such an innovative and community-based approach can be applied to other chronic medical conditions. Hypothesis #1: We hypothesize that patients in the peer-driven intervention with interactive voice response (PDI-IVR) group will experience a greater patient satisfaction (measured by Likert scale64,70 and PACIC71,72) and perception of care coordination (measured by CPCQ72,73) than patients in the usual care (control) group. Hypothesis #2: We hypothesize that patients in the PDI-IVR group will experience a greater CPAP adherence (measured by device download), patient activation (PAM), and self-efficacy (SEMSA) than patients in the usual care (control) group. Hypothesis #3: We hypothesize that patients in the PDI-IVR group will experience greater improvements in HR-QOL (measured by FOSQ) vigilance (psychomotor vigilance testing) and blood pressure than patients in the usual care (control) group.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is associated with elevated plasma levels of IL-6 and TNF-α, which cannot be accounted for by obesity (Vgontzas et al Sleep Med Rev 2005;9:211-24, Ciftci et al Cytokine 2004;28:87-91]. Obstructive apneas-hypopneas are accompanied by strenuous diaphragmatic contractions before the ensuing arousals and re-establishment of airway patency. We have shown that strenuous diaphragmatic contractions induced by resistive loading lead to elevated plasma levels of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β (Vassi-lakopoulos et al AJRCCM 2002;166:1572-8) with concomitant up-regulation of the cytokines within the diaphragmatic myofibers (Vassilakopoulos et al AJRCCM 2004;170:154-61). OSAS patients exhibit frequent episodes of hypoxemia during the night. Loaded breathing is a form exercise for the respiratory muscles, and both acute and chronic hypoxia lead to an augmented plasma IL-6 response to exercise compared to normoxia (Lundby et al Eur J Appl Physiol 2004;91:88-93). In OSAS, monocytes have oxidative stress (Dyugovskaya et al AJRCCM 2002;165:934-9) and produce more cytokines (TNF-α) in vitro (Minoguchi et al Chest 204;126:1473-9). Hypothesis #1: plasma levels of IL-6 and TNF-α are increased during the night in OSAS patients secondary to the intermittent strenuous diaphragmatic contractions and the episodes of hypoxia-reoxygenation associated with the obstructive apneas-hypopneas. Hypothesis #2: monocytes from sleep apnea patients, exhibit augmented intracellular expression of IL-6 and TNF-α during the night. Hypothesis #3: Oxidative stress is a stimulus for cytokine upregulation in OSAS.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common disease, with a prevalence evaluated between 5 - 7% in the general population. OSAS is characterized by recurrent episodes of partial or complete upper airway obstruction during sleep, which are nearly systematically associated with a desaturation-reoxygenation sequence, an admitted detrimental stimulus for the cardiovascular system. It has now been demonstrated that OSAS per se is able to generate hypertension, atherosclerosis and autonomic dysfunction (high sympathic tone and increase in baseline heart rate), all conditions possibly interacting with ocular vascular regulation. OSAS has major consequences on the ocular level since it is associated with a higher frequency of optic neuropathies, such as glaucoma and nonarteritic ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), both with functional severe prognosis. Most of vascular changes associated with OSAS have been studied at the level of macrovasculature. In terms of physiopathology, the main effects on the vascular system in OSAS are sympathetic hyperactivity, oxidative stress, development of endothelial dysfunction, systemic inflammation and metabolic alterations such as the appearance of insulin resistance. All these mechanisms can affect the microcirculation of the eye, especially the optic nerve and choroid. Our hypothesis is that the eye microvasculature is affected by OSAS, and these lesions may be detected via a reduced autoregulation of blood flow in humans. This project aims to demonstrate, quantify, and analyze the vascular modifications of the eye associated with OSAS trough a comparative clinical study on glaucoma patients and OSAS patients and matched healthy subjects for the regulation of the eye blood flow using confocal laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). The regulation of the ocular blood flow will be assessed using several stimuli and measured using a new confocal LDF.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome have permanent variations of their hemodynamic parameters during the night : heart rate, arterial blood pressure, cardiac output. This is due to the repetition of respiratory events (obstructive apnea and hypopnea) leading to frequent micro-arousals. These disorders have several consequences : hypertension, NO-dependent vasodilatation impairment, baroreceptor reflex impairment, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular impairments.

The purpose of this study is to define the mechanism(s) through which Obstructive Sleep Apnea/Hypopnea (OSAH) promotes abnormal metabolic processes which characterize the metabolic syndrome. The investigators hypothesize that the sleep fragmentation and intermittent sleep hypoxia which occur in OSAH patients promote oxidative stress and inflammation which in turn lead to insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, abnormal vascular reactivity and other processes which are consistent with the metabolic syndrome.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the most common sleep disorder. There are numerous conditions that are related to OSA, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndrome. If the patient with OSA have large tonsils, soft and largened uvula or flacid soft palate, one might benefit from operative treatment of OSA. The aim of our study is to find out whether an operative treatment is effective in mild OSA patients with carefully assessed anatomical predispositions. Our ultimate goal is to evaluate the effects of operative treatment in mild OSA itself and in the diseases related to OSA. We measure the cardiovasculary functions, symptoms, postoperative recovery, antropometry, laboratory tests, the quality of life, the quality of sleep and the inflammatory system in sleep apnea before and after the surgery.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), one of the most frequent respiratory diseases, could represent a major worsening factor in a non alcoholic steatohepatitis and neoplastic context. Our hypothesis is that OSA promotes the prevalence of HCC related to NASH. This national, multicenter study aims to compare the prevalence of OSA in a group of patient curatively resected for NASH-related HCC with a group of HCV-related HCC.