Plasma Glial Cell-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Levels Were Not Correlated with the Severity of Age-Related Hearing Impairment in Humans.

The relationship between plasma glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) or insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels and age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) has not been reported in humans. By cross-sectional design, 268 subjects older than 33, with normal cognitive function and normal or symmetric sensorineural hearing loss, were selected randomly. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to test the impact of the plasma GDNF or IGF-1 level on the pure tone threshold of low frequencies (PTA-low) and high frequencies (PTA-high), respectively. Results showed that plasma GDNF and IGF-1 levels decreased with age without statistical significance. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that GDNF or IGF-1 levels were not significantly correlated with PTA-low or PTA-high after adjusting age, gender, body mass index, systemic diseases, habits, and noise exposure. In conclusion, plasma GDNF or IGF-1 levels were not associated with the severity of ARHI in humans. However, these findings did not support the roles of GDNF or IGF-1 genotypes on hearing.

Association between various breathing indexes during sleep and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale score in adults.

Some breathing indexes during sleep, including the apnea-hypopnea index, oxygen desaturation index, and oxygen saturation during sleep, can be recorded by overnight polysomnography. We aimed to investigate the association of various breathing indexes during sleep with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score in adults. We retrospectively collected the clinical and overnight polysomnography data of 2829 adults aged 20 years or older from November 2011 to June 2017. The association of various breathing indexes during sleep and ESS score was analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis for all adults (20-91 years), and in each sex and of body mass index (<26 kg/m2 vs ≥26 kg/m2). The mean ESS score was 6.2 (standard deviation = 4.3; range = 0-24) for all adults. After adjustment for age, sex, many common diseases, and health-related habits, apnea-hypopnea index, oxygen desaturation index, percentage of oxygen saturation below 90% during sleep, and percentage of oxygen saturation below 85% during sleep were significantly positively associated with ESS score in all adults, whereas mean oxygen saturation during sleep, minimal oxygen saturation during sleep, and awake oxygen saturation during sleep were significantly negatively associated with ESS score in all adults. In subgroup analysis, we found that the association between breathing indexes during sleep and ESS score was similar in both sex, but was significant in subjects of body mass index ≥ 26 kg/m2. All breathing indexes during sleep had significant positive or negative correlation with ESS score in all adults, especially in obese subjects.

Sleep apnea plays a more important role on sleep N3 stage than chronic tinnitus in adults.

Sleep apnea is negatively associated with N3 sleep in children. However, the association between tinnitus and sleep N3 stage was still inconclusive. We aimed to clarify the relationship between sleep apnea, chronic tinnitus, and sleep N3 stage in adults. Clinical and overnight polysomnography data of 2847 adults were collected retrospectively. Univariate and multivariate linear regression was used to test the impacts of sleep apnea indices and chronic tinnitus on the percentage of sleep N3 stage in all adults. Univariate linear regression analysis showed that sleep apnea indices, chronic tinnitus, age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, subjective insomnia, sleep efficiency, and rapid eye movement sleep were significantly associated with sleep N3 stage. However, multivariate linear regression showed that apnea-hyponea index, but not chronic tinnitus, has a significant negative association with the percentage of sleep N3 stage. Sleep apnea plays a more important role on sleep N3 stage than chronic tinnitus in adults.

Impact of common diseases and habits on daytime sleepiness in adults.

We aimed to investigate the impact of common diseases and habits on daytime sleepiness in adults. We retrospectively collected the clinical and overnight polysomnographic data of 2829 adults. The impact of common diseases and habits on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score was analyzed by univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses. The mean ESS score was 6.2 (standard deviation = 4.3; range = 0-24) for all adults. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that dyslipidemia, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), liver cirrhosis, alcohol drinking, and tea consumption had a significantly positive association with ESS score for all adults after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, apnea-hypopnea index, sleep efficiency, percentage of sleep N3 stage, and depression. Subgroup analysis by sex showed that AMI, liver cirrhosis, alcohol drinking, and tea consumption had significantly positive association with ESS scores in males, whereas only dyslipidemia had significantly positive association with ESS scores in females. Subgroup analysis by age showed that alcohol drinking had a significantly positive association with ESS scores in young adults. AMI had a significantly positive association with ESS scores, but chronic kidney disease had a significantly negative association with ESS scores in middle-aged adults. Furthermore, dyslipidemia, chronic kidney disease, and cancers had a significantly positive association with ESS scores in older adults. Dyslipidemia, AMI, liver cirrhosis, alcohol drinking, and tea consumption had a significantly positive association with daytime sleepiness in adults but differed by sex and age.

Association of sleep terror, walking or talking and tinnitus.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Sleep disturbances are associated with chronic tinnitus in humans. However, whether parasomnias are associated with chronic tinnitus is unclear. This study aims to investigate this issue. METHODS: Clinical data for 2907 subjects who had visited the Sleep Center of a community hospital in Taiwan during November 2011 to June 2017 were collected retrospectively. The association of chronic tinnitus with sleep terror, sleep walking, and sleep talking was analyzed using Pearson's Chi-Square test and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: The cohort age ranged from 7 to 91 years old, with a mean age of 49.8 years (standard deviation, 14.3 years). The cohort included 1937 patients without and 970 patients with chronic tinnitus. The percentage of patients who experienced sleep terror was significantly higher among those with tinnitus than those without (p < 0.001). The percentage of patients reporting sleep walking was slightly higher in subjects with tinnitus than in those without, with borderline significance (p = 0.063). The percentage of patients experiencing sleep talking did not differ significantly between the groups. Multivariate logistic regression also showed that sleep terror but not sleep walking was significantly associated with tinnitus after adjusting for age, sex, hearing loss, and insomnia. After adjusting for other factors, subgroup analysis by age showed that sleep terror was significantly positively associated with chronic tinnitus in patients aged 20-44 years but not in those aged 7-19 or >45 years. CONCLUSION: Sleep terror is positively associated with chronic tinnitus, especially in young adults.

Association of periodic limb movements during sleep and tinnitus in humans.

Both of periodic limb movements during sleep (PLMS) and tinnitus were related with dopaminergic system dysfunction. However, it was still unclear whether PLMS, one kind of sleep disturbances, was associated with chronic tinnitus or not. Thus, we aimed to investigate this issue in humans. Clinical and overnight polysomnographic data of 2849 adults from a community hospital during Nov. 2011 to Jun 2017 in Taiwan was collected retrospectively. The association of PLMS and chronic tinnitus was analyzed by Student's t-test, Pearson's Chi-Square test, and multivariate logistic regression. The results showed that the mean age was 50.6 years old (standard deviation, SD = 13.3, range = 18~91) for all subjects. There were 1886 subjects without tinnitus and 963 subjects with tinnitus in this study. The PLMS was not significantly different between subjects without tinnitus (mean = 1.0/h, SD = 3.5/h) and subjects with tinnitus mean = 1.1/h, SD = 3.4/h) by Student's t-test. The severity of PLMS was not significantly between non-tinnitus and tinnitus subjects by Pearson's Chi-Square test. Multivariate logistic regression also showed that PLMS was not significantly associated with tinnitus after adjusting age, sex, subjective hearing loss, Parkinson's disease, and insomnia. In conclusion, PLMS was not associated with chronic tinnitus in humans.

Association of periodic limb movements during sleep and Parkinson disease: A retrospective clinical study.

Both of periodic limb movements during sleep (PLMS) and Parkinson disease (PD) were related with dopaminergic system dysfunction. We aimed to investigate the detailed association of PLMS severity and PD.Clinical and overnight polysomnographic data of 2230 adults older than 40 from a community hospital between November 2011 and June 2017 in Taiwan were collected retrospectively. The association of PLMS severity and PD was analyzed by Fisher exact test, univariate, and multivariate logistic regression.The mean age was 55.6 years old (standard deviation = 9.8, range = 40-91) for all subjects. There were 2205 subjects without PD and 25 subjects with PD in this study. The distribution of PLMS severity was not significantly different between subjects without PD and with PD (Fischer exact test, P = .215). Also, PLMS was not significantly associated with PD using univariate and multivariate logistic regression.The PLMS severity was not associated with PD.