Less Gray Matter Found in Brains of OSA Patients

Research has shown that the brains of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have up to 18% less gray matter, compared to normal patients. The research was reported in the November 15, 2002, issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Using high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), investigators analyzed 3-D images made of the brains of 21 patients with OSA and 12 healthy controls. They found that OSA patients had gray matter losses in such brain regions as the left frontal cortex, an area that modulates upper airway motor function, and the cerebellum, which plays a major role in cardiovascular and respiratory control. The investigators, from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA), say a portion of the volume changes may have been present before the onset of OSA and may have contributed to the characteristics of the syndrome.

To date, neural deficits have been justifiably assumed to represent a consequence of sleep-disordered breathing rather than to precede the syndrome, noted David Gozal, M.D., of the Kosair Children's Hospital Research Institute at the University of Louisville (KY, USA), in an editorial in the same issue. "Perhaps the time has come to reverse our thinking.”




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