November/December 2009

Notes from the Section

• The AARC INTERNATIONAL RESPIRATORY CONGRESS is coming up Dec. 5–8, and we’d like to invite all of our section members who are planning to attend to come to the section business meeting on Tuesday from 1–1:45 p.m.
• Congratulations to Tony Stigall, who was just elected to serve as our new section chair. Tony is taking over for Sheri Tooley-Peters, who has been serving as interim chair.
• The Fall edition of our Section Bulletin is ONLINE now—take a few moments to read great articles on preoperative screening for OSA and the new sleep exam from the NBRC.

Kudos To….
Gayle Thorley, Jennifer Winkelman, Bud Millis, and Susan Placito, all from the Crouse Hospital Sleep Center in Syracuse, NY, for passing the RPSGT exam. If you have a sleep-related accomplishment to report, e-mail it to SHERI TOOLEY-PETERS.

Exercise Benefits OSA Patients, for Awhile
A new study out of Turkey finds an exercise program consisting of breathing and aerobic exercises can benefit obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients in terms of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), health-related quality of life, quality of sleep, and exercise capacity. However, clinically significant improvements seen at a 12 week follow up were not maintained over the long term. The research was conducted among 20 patients who were randomly assigned to the exercise group or a group that did not take part in the exercise sessions. The investigators published their findings in the Nov. 7 Epub edition of Sleep & Breathing. READ ABSTRACT

Poorly Controlled Asthma Equals More Severe OSA
Children with poorly controlled asthma are also more likely to have more severe OSA, report researchers from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Their study assessed asthma and OSA in 50 children diagnosed with OSA by polysomnography. Thirty-two had a history of asthma; 22 children reported current asthma. Atopy was found in 27 subjects. AHI was significantly higher in children whose asthma was not well controlled, and after controlling for sleep efficiency and age, researchers linked a history of asthma to an increase in AHI Of 8.8. The study appeared in the November issue of the Journal of Asthma. READ ABSTRACT

Aroma Therapy for Sleep Apnea?
Could the sense of smell be a target for sleep apnea treatment? Maybe, report Israeli researchers who assessed 36 healthy sleepers who were presented with one of four different odors while sleeping. The scents included two mildly trigeminal odorants (the pleasant lavender and unpleasant vetiver oil) and two pure olfactory odorants (the pleasant vanillin and unpleasant ammonium sulfide). All four transiently decreased inhalation and increased exhalation for up to six breaths following odor onset, report the authors, and the effect persisted regardless of odorant valence or stage of sleep. “These results suggest that the olfactory system may provide a path to manipulate respiration in sleep,” they write. The research was published in the Nov. 16 Epub edition of Chemical Senses. READ ABSTRACT

SDB May Trigger Nocturnal Arrhythmias
Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center find the relative risk of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) during sleep is significantly higher following a respiratory disturbance, suggesting a direct temporal link between sleep disordered breathing events and the development of these arrhythmias. The study is based on polysomnograms taken from the Sleep Heart Health Study and was published in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. READ ABSTRACT