CPAP adherence after ambulatory and in-hospital management in patients aged 65 years and older.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study are to evaluate the early adherence to CPAP treatment in patients aged 65 years and older and to compare ambulatory (ACPAP) and in-hospital (HCPAP) management in starting CPAP treatment. METHODS: Adherence to CPAP therapy at 3 months was retrospectively studied in patients on whom CPAP therapy was initiated between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021. Patients in the ACPAP group were selected based on the current Belgian reimbursement criteria (OAHI ≥30/h and few comorbidities). RESULTS: 146 patients were studied (median OAHI 43.35/h [32.02; 57.40]; median age 69 [67.0; 73.0]): 116 (79.5%) patients in the HCPAP and 30 (20.5%) in the ACPAP group. Based on an adherence threshold of average CPAP use of ≥ 4 hours per day, 120 (82%) patients were adherent to the treatment; 94 (81%) patients in the HCPAP and 26 (86.7%) in the ACPAP group. The median CPAP use for the total population was 6.4 h/day [4.89; 7.34], reaching 6.3 h/d [4.79; 7.15] for the HCPAP group and 6.8 h/d [6.21; 8.06] for the ACPAP group (p = 0.019). Insomnia was a significant risk factor for non-adherence (OR 5.16 [1.64; 16.08], p = 0.0043) but the ACPAP method was not (OR 0.66 [0.18; 1.91], p = 0.4748). CONCLUSION: Early CPAP adherence in patients ≥ 65 years old was good in terms of average use per day and proportion of adherent patients. ACPAP method was not a risk factor for lower CPAP adherence in patients presenting severe OSAS (OAHI ≥30/h) and few comorbidities.

SARS-CoV-2-Induced Severe Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura.

Hematologic changes are common in coronavirus infections, including lymphopenia and thrombocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia was frequent during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002 - 2003. The mechanisms involved in platelet deficiency are unclear. Many viruses are known to trigger immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), but the disease is rarely described in association with coronavirus. We describe the case of acute ITP associated with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) in an 86-year-old woman. Intravenous gamma-globulin and corticosteroids were effective on platelet count evolution.

Mandible behaviour interpretation during wakefulness, sleep and sleep-disordered breathing.

The mandible movement (MM) signal provides information on mandible activity. It can be read visually to assess sleep-wake state and respiratory events. This study aimed to assess (1) the training of independent scorers to recognize the signal specificities; (2) intrascorer reproducibility and (3) interscorer variability. MM was collected in the mid-sagittal plane of the face of 40 patients. The typical MM was extracted and classified into seven distinct pattern classes: active wakefulness (AW), quiet wakefulness or quiet sleep (QW/S), sleep snoring (SS), sleep obstructive events (OAH), sleep mixed apnea (MA), respiratory related arousal (RERA) and sleep central events (CAH). Four scorers were trained; their diagnostic capacities were assessed on two reading sessions. The intra- and interscorer agreements were assessed using Cohen's κ. Intrascorer reproducibility for the two sessions ranged from 0.68 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59-0.77] to 0.88 (95% CI: 0.82-0.94), while the between-scorer agreement amounted to 0.68 (95% CI: 0.65-0.71) and 0.74 (95% CI: 0.72-0.77), respectively. The overall accuracy of the scorers was 75.2% (range: 72.4-80.7%). CAH MMs were the most difficult to discern (overall accuracy 65.6%). For the two sessions, the recognition rate of abnormal respiratory events (OAH, CAH, MA and RERA) was excellent: the interscorer mean agreement was 90.7% (Cohen's κ: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.79-0.88). The discrimination of OAH, CAH, MA characteristics was good, with an interscorer agreement of 80.8% (Cohen's κ: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.62-0.68). Visual analysis of isolated MMs can successfully diagnose sleep-wake state, normal and abnormal respiration and recognize the presence of respiratory effort.

Influence of radiological emphysema on lung function test in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one of the most frequent interstitial lung disease. Emphysema can be associated with IPF as described in the «Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema¼ syndrome. AIM: The primary endpoint of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate the impact of the association of IPF and emphysema on lung function tests parameters (FVC, TLC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC and DLCO). The secondary endpoint was to assess the impact of the associated radiological emphysema on lung function parameters used in the du Bois prognostic score recently developed by Ron du Bois et al. METHOD: We retrospectively reviewed the medical files of 98 patients with lung fibrosis who were followed in our University Hospital with access to pharmacological studies and lung transplantation from 1981 to 2011. Fifty six patients were considered for analysis. The collected data included gender, age, smoking history and respiratory hospitalizations. We also analysed their pulmonary functional parameters along with radiological characteristics, in particular the presence of emphysema which was assessed on thoracic high resolution CT scan. The du Bois score was retrospectively calculated from these data. RESULTS: TLC and FVC at diagnosis were significantly higher in the IPF-E group compared to the IPF group (respectively 86.6 ± 17.2% pv versus 72.0 ± 15.0% pv; p: 0.004 and 86.8 ± 18.4% pv versus 72.6 ± 20.6% pv; p: 0.020). The [Formula: see text] used in the calculation of the du Bois prognostic score was significantly higher in the IPF-E group. By cons, [Formula: see text] was not statistically different between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Radiological emphysema associated with IPF had an impact on pulmonary function tests. Despite this difference, the du Bois score was not statistically different between these two groups. Nevertheless, after one year of follow up, the patients with emphysema were in a subclass with a lower mortality rate than those without emphysema.

Added value of a mandible movement automated analysis in the screening of obstructive sleep apnea.

In-laboratory polysomnography is the 'gold standard' for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, but is time consuming and costly, with long waiting lists in many sleep laboratories. Therefore, the search for alternative methods to detect respiratory events is growing. In this prospective study, we compared attended polysomnography with two other methods, with or without mandible movement automated analysis provided by a distance-meter and added to airflow and oxygen saturation analysis for the detection of respiratory events. The mandible movement automated analysis allows for the detection of salient mandible movement, which is a surrogate for arousal. All parameters were recorded simultaneously in 570 consecutive patients (M/F: 381/189; age: 50±14 years; body mass index: 29±7 kg m(-2) ) visiting a sleep laboratory. The most frequent main diagnoses were: obstructive sleep apnea (344; 60%); insomnia/anxiety/depression (75; 13%); and upper airway resistance syndrome (25; 4%). The correlation between polysomnography and the method with mandible movement automated analysis was excellent (r: 0.95; P<0.001). Accuracy characteristics of the methods showed a statistical improvement in sensitivity and negative predictive value with the addition of mandible movement automated analysis. This was true for different diagnostic thresholds of obstructive sleep severity, with an excellent efficiency for moderate to severe index (apnea-hypopnea index ≥15h(-1) ). A Bland & Altman plot corroborated the analysis. The addition of mandible movement automated analysis significantly improves the respiratory index calculation accuracy compared with an airflow and oxygen saturation analysis. This is an attractive method for the screening of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, increasing the ability to detect hypopnea thanks to the salient mandible movement as a marker of arousals.

The sleep/wake state scoring from mandible movement signal.

PURPOSE: Estimating the total sleep time in home recording devices is necessary to avoid underestimation of the indices reflecting sleep apnea and hypopnea syndrome severity, e.g., the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). A new method to distinguish sleep from wake using jaw movement signal processing is assessed. METHODS: In this prospective study, jaw movement signal was recorded using the Somnolter (SMN) portable monitoring device synchronously with polysomnography (PSG) in consecutive patients complaining about a lack of recovery sleep. The automated sleep/wake scoring method is based on frequency and complexity analysis of the jaw movement signal. This computed scoring was compared with the PSG hypnogram, the two total sleep times (TST(PSG) and TST(SMN)) as well. RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation (in minutes) of TST(PSG) on the whole dataset (n = 124) were 407 ± 95.6, while these statistics were 394.2 ± 99.3 for TST(SMN). The Bland and Altman analysis of the difference between the two TST was 12.8 ± 57.3 min. The sensitivity and specificity (in percent) were 85.3 and 65.5 globally. The efficiency decreased slightly when AHI lies between 15 and 30, but remained similar for lower or greater AHI. In the 24 patients with insomnia/depression diagnosis, a mean difference in TST of -3.3 min, a standard deviation of 58.2 min, a sensitivity of 86.3%, and a specificity of 66.2% were found. CONCLUSIONS: Mandible movement recording and its dedicated signal processing for sleep/wake recognition improve sleep disorder index accuracy by assessing the total sleep time. Such a feature is welcome in home screening methods.