• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.153-162
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• 2017

The present study proposes a system that can detect sleep-disordered breathing automatically using an air mattress and oxygen saturation. A thin air mattress was fabricated to reduce discomfort during sleep, and respiration signals were acquired. The system was configured to be synchronized with a polysomnography to receive signals simultaneously with other bio-signals. The present study has been conducted with nine adult male and female patients with sleep-disordered breathing, and sleep-disordered breathing events have been detected by applying the signals acquired from the subjects to the rule-based detection algorithm. The sensitivity and positive predictive values were found to evaluate the performance of the system, which are 91.4% and 89.7% for all events, respectively. The comparison of apnea hypopnea index(AHI) between the polysomnography and the proposed method showed squared R-value of 0.9. This study presents the possibility of detecting sleep-disordered breathing at hospitals or homes using the proposed system.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.88-92
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• 2003

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), including snoring, sleep apnea and upper airway resistance syndrome are common problems in children. The pathophysiological mechanism of SDB in children is unclear but may include hypoxemia and changes in sleep architecture. Children with SDB show reduced neurocognitive function, and memory and attentional capacity. Furthermore, these children show increased problematic behaviour and reduced school performance. Whether early recognition and treatment of SDB in children may improve neurocognitive function and school performance remains to be fully evaluated in the future.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2005

Nasal obstruction may cause or aggravate sleep disordered breathing but exact pathogenesis is not clear. The possible mechanism could be combination of alteration in upper airway aerodynaimcs, loss of nasal reflex or sensation, effect of mouth opening, and a genetic predisposition. Anatomical narrowing of nasal airway cause more rapid airflow and induce more negative inspiratory air pressure. So, it increases collapsibility of pharyngeal airway. Loss of nasal sensation to airflow block nasal reflex. Mouth opening decreases the activity of pharyngeal airway dilator muscles and narrowing the pharyngeal airway may occur. The treatment of nasal obstruction should be done according to the cause. The causes of nasal obstruction are various from problems of external nasal opening to nasopharynx. Relief of nasal obstruction may not cure sleep disordered breathing always. In some mild obstructive sleep apnea patients, treatment of nasal obstruction only may cure sleep disordered breathing. In some severe sleep apnea patients, treatment of nasal obstruction may increase compliance of continous nasal positive airway pressure.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2004

Sleep is associated with definite changes in respiratory function in normal human beings. During sleep, there is loss of voluntary control of breathing and a decrease in the usual ventilatory response to both low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels. Especially, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a distinct neurophysiological state associated with significant changes in breathing pattern and ventilatory control as compared with both wakefulness and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. REM sleep is characterized by erratic, shallow breathing with irregularities both in amplitude and frequency owing to marked reduction in intercostal and upper airway muscle activity. These blunted ventilatory responses during sleep are clinically important. They permit marked hypoxemia that occurs during REM sleep in patients with lung or chest wall disease. In addition, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is more frequent and longer and hypoventilation is more pronounced during REM sleep. Although apneic episodes are most frequent and severe during REM sleep, most adults spend less than 20 to 25% of total sleep time in REM sleep. It is, therefore, possible for patients to have frequent apneas and hypopneas during REM sleep and still have a normal apnea-hypopnea index if the event-rich REM periods are diluted by event-poor periods of NREM sleep. In this review, we address respiratory physiology according to sleep stage, and the clinical implications of SDB and hypoventilation aggravated during REM sleep.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2019

The most common cause of mouth breathing is obstacles caused by mechanical factors in upper airway. Mouth breathing could be consequently pathological cause of sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep-disordered breathing in children can cause growth disorders and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between upper airway and sleep-disordered breathing in children with mouth breathing. Twenty boys between 7 - 9 years old who reported to have mouth breathing in questionnaire were evaluated with clinical examination, questionnaires, lateral cephalometric radiographs, and portable sleep testing. This study assessed apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and oxygen desaturation index (ODI) for the evaluation of sleep-disordered breathing and was done to investigate the correlation between these values and the upper airway width measured by lateral cephalometric radiographs. There was no significant correlation with the size of the tonsils (p = 0.921), but the adenoid hypertrophy was higher in the abnormal group than in the normal group (p = 0.008). In the classification according to AHI and ODI, retropalatal and retroglossal distance showed a statistically significant decrease in the abnormal group compared to the normal group (p = 0.002, p = 0.001). As AHI and ODI increased, upper airway width tended to be narrower. This indicates that mouth breathing could affect the upper airway, which is related to sleep quality.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.127-133
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• 2016

This study proposes the feasibility for automatic classification of sleep/wakefulness using nasal pressure in patients with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). First, SDB events were detected using the methods developed in our previous studies. In epochs for normal breathing, we extracted the features for classifying sleep/wakefulness based on time-domain, frequency-domain and non-linear analysis. And then, we conducted the independent two-sample t-test and calculated Mahalanobis distance (MD) between the two categories. As a results, $SD_{LEN}$ (MD = 0.84, p < 0.01), $P_{HF}$ (MD = 0.81, p < 0.01), $SD_{AMP}$ (MD = 0.76, p = 0.031) and $MEAN_{AMP}$ (MD = 0.75, p = 0.027) were selected as optimal feature. We classified sleep/wakefulness based on support vector machine (SVM). The classification results showed mean of sensitivity (Sen.), specificity (Spc.) and accuracy (Acc.) of 60.5%, 89.0% and 84.8% respectively. This method showed the possibilities to automatically classify sleep/wakefulness only using nasal pressure.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the difference between gustatory functions in a sleep disordered breathing (SDB) group and a control group. The pathogenesis of SDB has not been fully understood. Though the precise contributions of neuromuscular and anatomical factors on SDB pathogenesis are still debated, we hypothesized that the gustatory dysfunction could be predisposed to SDB. Methods: All patients were diagnosed as SDB by polysomnography (PSG). On the basis of PSG results, patients were divided into 3 groups: snoring, mixed, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The control group comprised healthy volunteers who were the same age as those of the SDB group and whose breathing was verified as normal using a portable sleep monitor device. The patient group and the control group were evaluated for gustatory functions with an electrogustometry (EGM). The electrical taste thresholds were measured in the anterior, midlateral, and posterior sides of the tongue and soft palatal regions, both sides. To find out the difference in EGM scores, statistical analysis was performed using the Kruskal-wallis and Mann-Whitney U test with 95% confidence interval and p<0.05 significance level. Results: The patients with SDB had higher EGM scores than the control group at all spots tested, except for the right midlateral of the tongue, and there was a statistical significance in the comparison between the control group and the divided SDB groups, respectively. Among the divided SDB groups, the snoring group had the most significant differences in the number of the measured spots, but there was no difference among the snoring, mixed, and OSA groups. Conclusions: These results may suggest that neurologic alterations with sleep disordered breathing could be associated with gustatory dysfunction. In the future, further systemic studies will be needed to confirm this study.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2001

In 2000, the number of people aged 65 and over increased to 3.37 million, accounting for 7.1% of the total population of South Korea. The elderly population will increase up to 19.3% in 2030. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) seems to increase with age. More than 50-60% of old people complain of SDB-related signs and symptoms including awakening headache, excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, memory loss, personality changes, and depression. The influence of a mild degree of SDB upon the elderly is unclear, but moderate to severe SDB is well known to be associated with many diseases including hypertension, arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, stroke, dementia, and sudden death. Therefore, physicians should pay attention to elderly patients who complain of SDB related symptoms and signs that may not be normal signs of aging. Physicians need to become more sensitive to treat SDB in the elderly.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2009

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2020

Sleep disorder in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is common and typically is associated with oxygen desaturation. The mechanisms of desaturation include hypoventilation and ventilation to perfusion mismatch. Despite the importance of sleep in patients with COPD, this topic is under-assessed in clinical practice. Impaired sleep quality is associated with more severe COPD and may contribute to worse clinical outcomes. Recent data have indicated that specific respiratory management of patients with COPD and sleep disordered breathing improves clinical outcomes. Clinicians managing patients with COPD should pay attention to and actively manage symptoms of comorbid sleep disorders. Management of sleep-related problems in COPD should particularly focus on minimizing sleep disturbance.