PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - F. Sériès
AU  - I. Marc
TI  - Importance of sleep stage- and body position-dependence of sleep apnoea in determining benefits to auto-CPAP therapy
AID  - 10.1183/09031936.01.98103501
DP  - 2001 Jul 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - 170--175
VI  - 18
IP  - 1
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/18/1/170.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/18/1/170.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2001 Jul 01; 18
AB  - The influence of sleep stage- and body position-dependence of sleep apnoea on treatment efficacy and compliance between conventional continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and auto CPAP therapy was evaluated.Thirty-three newly treated sleep apnoea hypopnoea syndrome (SAHS) patients were randomly allocated to conventional or auto-CPAP therapy. Six patients of each treatment group were classified as having sleep stage- and body position-dependent obstructive breathing abnormalities according to the results of the baseline sleep study.After 3 weeks of treatment, the Epworth sleepiness score tended to be higher (p=0.08) and the ability to stay awake lower (p=0.02) in patients with dependent breathing abnormalities treated with fixed CPAP, than in the other patients. The effective pressure/time index was significantly lower in sleep stage- and body position-dependent patients treated with fixed CPAP, than in the other patients (p=0.02). The number of hours the machine was turned on and a positive pressure applied, tended to be smaller in dependent patients treated with fixed CPAP than in independent patients of this treatment group and in patients treated with auto-CPAP. A night-to-night variability index (VI) of positive pressure changes was obtained in the auto-CPAP group. This index significantly decreased with time in the dependent patients while it remained unchanged in the independent group.It is concluded that auto-continuous positive airway pressure may have specific indications in a subset of obstructive sleep apnoea patients with sleep stage- and body position dependent nocturnal breathing abnormalities.