Summary
Nocturnal body motility has been compared in a sleep laboratory between patients with osteoarthritis and healthy age-, sex- and weight-matched controls using a Bio-medical timer and bedleg force transducers connected to a Disa polygraph. Four motility variables were derived (duration of movement; duration adjusted for sensitivity; number of movements; number of 30-s epochs containing movements) enabling an assessment of nocturnal body motility in the two groups. There was a trend for osteoarthritic patients to move more than controls during sleep on all variables measured, although this did not reach statistical significance. Temazepam elixir (0.4mg/kg body weight/night) reduced all four motility variables in both osteoarthritic patients and controls, although only the reduction of the number of 30-s epochs containing movements (P<0.05) in the control group attained statistical significance.
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Leigh, T.J., Bird, H.A., Hindmarch, I. et al. Measurement of nocturnal body motility: behaviour of osteoarthritic patients and healthy controls. Rheumatol Int 8, 67–70 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00271837
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00271837