Kinesthetic stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: An “on-off” proof of concept trial

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 3092 - 7
• Main Authors: Hernández, Alfredo I., Pérez, Diego, Feuerstein, Delphine, Loiodice, Corinne, Graindorge, Laurence, Guerrero, Gustavo, Limousin, Nadège, Gagnadoux, Frédéric, Dauvilliers, Yves, Tamisier, Renaud, Prigent, Arnaud, Mabo, Philippe, Amblard, Amel, Senhadji, Lotfi, Pépin, Jean-Louis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 15.02.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/166/985; 692/308/575; 692/700/565; 9/10; Apnea; Bioengineering; Human health and pathology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insomnia; Life Sciences; multidisciplinary; Muscle contraction; Respiratory tract; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sleep; Sleep apnea; Sleep disorders; Statistical analysis; Tissues and Organs
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21430-w

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs when the upper airway narrows or collapses due to the loss of upper airway muscle activation at sleep onset. This study investigated the effectiveness of triggered kinesthetic stimulation in patients with OSA. This proof-of-concept, open-label, multicenter prospective study was conducted on 24 patients with severe OSA. During a one night evaluation, kinesthetic stimulation was intermittently delivered in 30 minute periods. The duration of apneas and hypopneas during Stim on and Stim off periods were compared. Five hospital-based university centers in France participated. Sleep studies were evaluated by a single scorer at a core laboratory (CHU Grenoble). Results show that during the Stim on phases, statistically significant decreases in durations of apneas and hypopneas were observed in 56% and 46% of patients, respectively. Overall, 75% of patients showed an improvement in apneas or hypopneas durations. The mean reduction in durations for patients with a significant decrease was 4.86 seconds for apneas and 6.00 seconds for hypopneas. This proof of concept study is the first to identify kinesthetic stimulation as a potentially effective therapy for OSA. These data justify evaluation in a controlled study.