preview

Obstructive Sleep Apnea ( Osa )

Satisfactory Essays

INTRODUCTION Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a primary sleep disorder caused by repeated partial or complete upper airway collapse despite an ongoing effort to breathe during sleep. It is estimated that 22 millions of Americans suffer from OSA; 80% of men and 93% of women with moderate to severe OSA have not been diagnosed. There is a higher prevalence of moderate to severe OSA in the elderly (aged 65 or older) than in other age groups.[1] In patients with OSA, there are high rates of depression [2, 3] and neurocognitive deficits.[4, 5] OSA is associated with cerebral neural injury, and that may result in both mood dysregulation[6] and cognitive decline.[7] It remains to be established which neurocognitive domains that are affected by OSA. In patients with OSA, autoregulation is impaired, and that results in hypoperfusion to the brain tissue,[8, 9] particularly in the regions with poor collateral circulation (e.g., such as the terminal small arterial territories).[10] Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion may lead to the development of cerebral small vessel disease (C-SVD).[11] Additionally, the presence of intermittent hypoxemia may accelerate the progression of C-SVD,[9, 12] and that increases the risk of developing depression[13-15] and executive dysfunction.[16, 17] In parallel, rapid alternations between hypoxia and reoxygenation cause damage of endothelium of small arteries and arterioles through oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.[18-20] These processes can cause

Get Access