CPAP reverses OSA impacts on the brain
Six months of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can reverse cognitive deficits seen in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
A study led by Dr Angela D’Rozario, from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, compared cognitive assessment across working memory, sustained attention, visuospatial scanning and executive function in 162 patients before and after CPAP treatment
Cognitive function across all domains improved after six months of CPAP.
Power spectral analysis performed on EEG data in a sub-set of 90 participants showed increased relative delta power (p<0.0001) and reduced sigma power (p=0.001) during non-REM sleep.
These findings suggest the reversibility of cognitive deficits and altered brain electrophysiology observed in untreated OSA following six months of treatment, the study concluded.
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Slow inhalation improves aerosol delivery to the lungs in CF
Long slow inhalations might improve delivery of aerosol to the lung periphery in cystic fibrosis patients with moderate lung disease, a pilot study shows.
The trial of five CF patients aged between 12 and 18 years with a mean FEV1 72%; range 63–80% compared two inhalation techniques – breathing tidally from a standard continuous output nebuliser and long slow inhalations from the dosimetric AKITA® JET system.
Results showed that drug delivery to the peripheries of the lungs was improved using the long slow inhalations.
“The slow breath permits the larger droplets contained in the nebuliser’s polydispersed aerosol to avoid impaction in the upper airways and so deposit in the larger conducting airways, while the smaller droplets that would normally reach the lungs with tidal breathing are able to penetrate deeper into the lungs,” the study authors wrote in their paper published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.