RESUMEN
Although continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the most effective therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), it is not always well tolerated by the patients. Previous physiological studies showed that pressure oscillations applied to the pharynx could activate upper airway muscles, but it is not clear whether these pressure oscillations could be tolerated during sleep in OSA patients. The aim of this study was to assess the tolerance of oscillating positive airway pressure (O-PAP) (a CPAP device delivering high-frequency pressure oscillations to the upper airway) compared to CPAP. Fourteen OSA patients currently on CPAP [age 59.9 ± 10.1 years old, BMI 34.8 ± 7.2 kg/m(2), initial apnea-hypopnea index (AHI): 58.7 ± 25.2 events/h] used O-PAP or CPAP on two consecutive nights under polysomnography, in a single-blind randomized crossover design to assess sleep quality. A subtherapeutic pressure (70% of the optimal titrated pressure) was applied in both conditions and the residual AHI with each technique was also compared. There was no difference in measured or perceived sleep quality between the two treatment modalities (sleep efficiency 90.0% versus 88.1%, p = 0.54). Despite the small sample, we also found a trend toward a decrease in residual respiratory events with O-PAP compared to CPAP (median AHI 14.3 versus 20.5/h, p = 0.194). The good tolerance of O-PAP and the positive trend toward a reduction in residual AHI should stimulate further research on the effects of O-PAP in OSA patients.
RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: the main objective was to evaluate if the admission functional independence measure (FIM) score could be used to predict the risk of falls in geriatric inpatients. DESIGN: a 10-year retrospective study was performed. SETTING: the study was conducted in a 298-bed geriatric teaching hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. SUBJECTS: all patients discharged from the hospital from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006 were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: measures used were FIM scores at admission using the FIM instrument and number of falls extracted from the institution's fall report forms. RESULTS: during the study period, there were 23,966 hospital stays. A total of 8,254 falls occurred. Of these, 7,995 falls were linked to 4,651 stays. Falls were recorded in 19.4% of hospital stays, with a mean incidence of 7.84 falls per 1,000 patients-days. Although there was a statistically significant relationship between total FIM score, its subscales, and the risk of falling, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value obtained with receiver operating characteristic curves were insufficient to permit fall prediction. This might be due in part to a non-linear relationship between FIM score and fall risk. CONCLUSION: in this study, the FIM instrument was found to be unable to predict risk of falls in general geriatric wards.