ABSTRACT
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by obstructions of the upper airway during sleep, resulting in repetitive breathing pauses accompanied by oxygen desaturation and arousal from sleep. OSA can be successfully treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), weight loss, positional therapy, oral appliances, hypoglossal nerve stimulation, and surgical procedures. It has been observed that untreated OSA is related to chronic disorders including hypertension, arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, stroke, depression, and cognitive decline. Event-related potentials (ERPs) is the procedure that has been widely used for evaluating cognitive brain functions. Using auditory event-related potentials (P300), this study aimed to examine the effect of CPAP therapy on cognitive functions in patients with moderate and severe OSA. The results of the study showed improvement in P300 latency and amplitude after 3 months of CPAP therapy, indicating a positive effect of CPAP therapy in the prevention of cognitive decline in patients with OSA.
Subject(s)
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure , Sleep Apnea, Obstructive , Humans , Continuous Positive Airway Pressure/methods , Sleep Apnea, Obstructive/therapy , Sleep Apnea, Obstructive/complications , Sleep , Brain , Evoked PotentialsABSTRACT
Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent chronic neurological diseases, affecting about 70 million people worldwide. Patients with epilepsy often encounter cognitive dysfunction, which is influenced by different factors including age at the onset of epilepsy, etiology of epilepsy, type of seizures, seizure frequency and duration, psychiatric comorbidity, and antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy. Event-related potentials are useful, noninvasive, objective clinical and research instrument for evaluation of cognitive functions in patients. The aim of this study was to investigate and determine the effect of AED monotherapy and polytherapy on cognitive changes in patients with epilepsy, detected with P300 event-related potentials and compared with age- and gender-matched healthy individuals. The study was conducted in 82 patients with generalized and focal epilepsy and 82 healthy individuals aged 18-65 years. Cognitive evoked P300 potentials were recorded in all study subjects using auditory 'oddball' paradigm. The results showed the patients taking AED polytherapy to have a significantly longer P300 latency and significantly lower N200-P300 amplitude. These results indicate that AED polytherapy might worsen cognitive impairment in patients with epilepsy.
