November-December 2010

ALL-SECTION ALERT - Membership Growth Crucial
We are asking all section members to help raise our membership roster by Dec. 31. Our section earned a seat on the AARC Board of Directors because we had 1,000 Active members (Active members are credentialed respiratory therapists), but we have fallen below that threshold. In order to maintain that seat we need to grow back to 1,000 by Dec. 31. We are not far away, but it will require that each of you do your part to find a new member of the section by month's end. Let's not jeopardize our seat; please recruit a Sleep Section member today.

The Home Care Section is similarly in jeopardy. If you have an interest in Home Care as well, please consider joining that section now. Go to one of these links to join: AARC MEMBER JOINING SECTION ONLY or JOIN AARC AND SECTION TOGETHER.

Fall Bulletin Online Now
We have a great article on polysomnographic scoring in infants and children in our Fall Bulletin, and Section Chair Tony Stigall also shares the latest section activities in his “Notes” column. READ THE ISSUE

Upper GI Conditions and Sleep
Three studies presented at the recent American College of Gastroenterology meeting examine the link between upper GI conditions and sleep disordered breathing (SDB):

• The first study found patients with functional dyspepsia were 3.25 times more likely to have SDB, and women with the condition were 2.3 times more likely to have it than men with the condition.
• In the second study, researchers found GERD-induced sleep dysfunction had a significant adverse effect on simulated driving performance, but treatment with esomeprazole improved the situation.
• The third study looked at the effect of the muscle-relaxant and antispastic drug baclofen on nighttime heartburn sufferers who were also suffering from sleep disturbances, finding the drug significantly reduced episodes of GERD and improved several measures of sleep.

READ PRESS RELEASE

CPAP Reverses Some Cognitive Problems Seen with OSA
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients often blame cognitive problems experienced during the day on simply being sleepy. Italian researchers publishing in a recent issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine believe the problem may lie in structural brain abnormalities in regions susceptible to hypoxemia. The good news is, these abnormalities can change for the better with treatment. In a study conducted among 17 treatment-naïve individuals with severe OSA and 15 age-matched controls they found significant reductions in gray matter in OSA subjects vs. non-OSA subjects. But after three months of treatment with CPAP, patients in the OSA group experienced significant cognitive improvement in all domains. READ PRESS RELEASE

Education Holds the Key to CPAP Compliance
Patient education can make a difference in CPAP compliance, report Pennsylvania researchers publishing in the Nov. 9 Epub edition of Patient Education and Counseling. They studied 66 middle-aged people with severe OSA to find out how their perceptions of the condition and its treatment would influence CPAP compliance. At the end of one week, CPAP use was 3.99±2.48h/night. At the end of one month, it was3.06±2.43h/night. All of the patients were given the Self Efficacy Measure for Sleep Apnea questionnaire at baseline, after CPAP education, and one week after beginning treatment. While no baseline domains on the test correlated with CPAP use, self-efficacy measured post-education influenced CPAP compliance at one week, and both post-education and one week self-efficacy measures influenced one month CPAP compliance. The authors conclude, “Patient education is important to OSA patients’ formulation of accurate and realistic disease and treatment perceptions which influence CPAP adherence.” READ ABSTRACT

Quantifying RLS
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center researchers who looked at the prevalence, disease burden, and costs of primary restless legs syndrome (RLS) in the U.S. find the condition is common and under-diagnosed. Based on a series of surveys, the investigators found:

• A US census-weighted prevalence of 2.4% for primary RLS and 1.5% for primary RLS sufferers (defined as having symptoms two or more times a week with moderate-to-severe distress).
• A physician diagnosis of RLS in about 33% of respondents.
• A mean productivity loss of one day per week in primary RLS sufferers.
• Increased RLS-related costs with increasing RLS symptom severity, along with increasingly significant decrements in health status, sleep disturbance, and work productivity.

The study appeared in the Nov. 10 Epub edition of Movement Disorders. READ ABSTRACT