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Brain microstructural alterations in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea: a preliminary diffusion tensor imaging study

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Abstract

We applied a neuroimaging analysis to investigate the association between neurocognitive decline and brain structural changes in patients with OSAS. Nineteen male patients with severe OSAS were enrolled. Correlations between sleep-breathing indices and microstructural changes were analyzed. SpO2 was positively correlated with ADC, FA, and white matter volumes in frontal areas, cingulate, anterior cerebellar lobe, and pons. A positive correlation with gray matter volume was identified in the bilateral parahippocampal gyri. Neurocognitive decline also correlated with minimum SpO2 value. Intermittent hypoxia in OSAS may cause microstructural axonal changes. These alterations may underlie executive dysfunction in OSAS.

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Abbreviations

AHI:

Apnea/hypopnea index

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

OSAS:

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

PSG:

Polysomnography

DTI:

Diffusion tensor imaging

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Yaesu Clinic for providing the MR images for the DTI sequence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Somnology Center, Institute of Neuropsychiatry, 1-24-10 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 151-0053, Japan

    Masaki Nakamura, Mariko Yanagihara, Kentaro Matsui, Mina Kobayashi & Yuichi Inoue

  2. Department of Somnology, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-0023, Japan

    Masaki Nakamura & Yuichi Inoue

  3. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-0023, Japan

    Mariko Yanagihara

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, 8-1 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8666, Japan

    Kentaro Matsui

Authors
  1. Masaki Nakamura
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  2. Mariko Yanagihara
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  3. Kentaro Matsui
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  4. Mina Kobayashi
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  5. Yuichi Inoue
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masaki Nakamura.

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Funding

This study was funded by JSPS KAKENHI Grant numbers 23791374 (a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists [B]) and 15K11463 (a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [C]).

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute (approval no. 61). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to study participation. All procedures in studies involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.

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Nakamura, M., Yanagihara, M., Matsui, K. et al. Brain microstructural alterations in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea: a preliminary diffusion tensor imaging study. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 15, 331–335 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-017-0113-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-017-0113-y

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