TY - JOUR T1 - Neural respiratory drive and arousal in patients with obstructive sleep apnea–hypopnea JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - 232 AU - Sichang Xiao AU - Yingxin Wu AU - Baiting He AU - Joerg Steier AU - John Moxham AU - Michael I. Polkey AU - Yuanming Luo Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/232.abstract N2 - Background: Repetitive arousals after apnea and hypopnea events in patients with obstructive sleep apnea have been hypothesized to be triggered by respiratory effort.Objectives: The purpose of the study is to determine whether the threshold of respiratory drive responsible for arousal for apnea is the same as that for hypopnea.Methods: Seventeen subjects (two females and fifteen males, mean age 53±11 years) with obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea were studied by recording diaphragm EMG and esophageal pressure during overnight full polysomnography.Results: A total of 709 hyponea events and 986 apnea events were analyzed. There was wide variation in Pes at the end of both apnea and hypopnea events and the maximal Pes could be four times higher than the minimal Pes at the end of apnea within a subject. 15.5%±14.2% of hypopnea events and 9.5%±11.6% of apnea events during stage 2 were terminated without arousal. There was significant difference in EMGdi at the end of respiratory events between hypopnea and apnea [(25.3±14.2) % EMGmax. vs (21.7 ±13.2)%EMGmax, p<0.05]. The mean of EMG at the end of events that terminated with arousal was similar to that terminated without arousal for both hypopnea events [(27.6±13.9) % EMGmax vs (29.9±15.9)%EMGmax, p>0.05)] and apnea events [(22.9±11.5) % EMGmax vs (22.1±12.6) % EMGmax, p>0.05].Conclusions: our data do not support the concept that there is threshold of respiratory drive which responsible for arousal to resume airflow. ER -