Abstract
This study aimed to investigate associations between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and cortical thickness in older adults with subjective and objective cognitive difficulties, who are considered “at-risk” for dementia.
83 middle-aged to older adults (51–88 years) underwent neuropsychological testing, polysomnography assessment of OSA and a structural magnetic resonance imaging brain scan. A principal components analysis was performed on OSA measures. Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were compared to extracted components of “oxygen desaturation” and “sleep disturbance”.
Oxygen desaturation was significantly related to reduced cortical thickness in the bilateral temporal lobes (left: r=−0.44, p<0.001; right: r=−0.39, p=0.003). Conversely, sleep disturbance was associated with increased thickness in the right postcentral gyrus (r=0.48, p<0.001), pericalcarine (r=0.50, p=0.005) and pars opercularis (r=0.46, p=0.009) and increased volume of the hippocampus and amygdala. Decreased thickness in the bilateral temporal regions was associated with reduced verbal encoding (r=0.28, p=0.010).
Given the clinical significance of this sample in terms of dementia prevention, these changes in grey matter reveal how OSA might contribute to neurodegenerative processes in older adults.
Abstract
This study demonstrates how obstructive sleep apnoea might contribute to neurodegenerative processes in older adults http://ow.ly/frH030jWFJn
Footnotes
This article has supplementary material available from erj.ersjournals.com
Author contributions: N.E. Cross was involved in the conception and design of the study, acquisition and analysis of data, and drafting a significant portion of the manuscript. N. Memarian was involved with acquisition and analysis of data. S.L. Duffy was involved with acquisition and analysis of data. C. Paquola was involved with analysis of data. H. LaMonica was involved with acquisition of the data. A. D'Rozario was involved with acquisition and analysis of data. S.J.G. Lewis was involved in the conception and design of the study, and acquisition of data. I.B. Hickie was involved with conception and design of the study. R.R. Grunstein was involved with the conception and design of the study. S.L. Naismith was involved in the conception and design of the study and drafting a significant portion of the manuscript. All authors contributed significantly to the interpretation of results and had input into the writing of the manuscript.
Conflict of interest: None declared.
- Received January 26, 2018.
- Accepted May 4, 2018.
- Copyright ©ERS 2018
INDIVIDUALS
Log in using your username and password
LIBRARY USERS
Log in through your institution
Purchase access
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about the ERS publications website, please contact journals@ersnet.org