Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
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Sleep apnea and related disorders are not uncommon in abstinent alcoholics. We assessed the relationship between age and the presence and severity of sleep-disordered breathing in alcoholism by performing one night of polysomnography on 75 abstinent alcoholic subjects undergoing treatment for alcoholism. Sleep-disordered breathing (defined as 10 or more apneas plus hypopneas/hr of sleep) was present in 17% of 66 men aged 22-76 and in 0 of 9 women aged 28-63 years. ⋯ Sleep in subjects with sleep-disordered breathing was significantly more disturbed than in subjects without sleep-disordered breathing. Our findings suggest that sleep-disordered breathing in older male alcoholics is more prevalent than has been reported in most studies of normal men and that the increase in sleep-disordered breathing that occurs with age in alcoholics is greater than the age-related increase in sleep-disordered breathing that occurs in healthy elderly men. Furthermore, sleep-disordered breathing is a significant contributor to sleep disturbance in a substantial proportion of male alcoholics above the age of 40 years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Dec 1993
Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor prevents ethanol-induced impairment in host defense in septic rats.
Ethanol is a potent immunosuppressive agent that impairs neutrophil effector function. The purpose of this study was to determine whether granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), a cytokine that increases neutrophil number and functional activity, could prevent the ethanol-induced impairment of antibacterial host defense. Rats were injected with human recombinant G-CSF for 2 days. ⋯ In acutely intoxicated rats, leukocyte migration to the inflammatory site was impaired, and the number of viable bacteria isolated from the subcutaneous pocket was markedly increased. G-CSF prevented the sepsis-induced leukopenia, increased the influx of neutrophils in to the infection site, reduced the number of bacteria in the subcutaneous lavage fluid, and decreased the incidence of bacteremia in ethanol-treated rats when compared with rats not receiving G-CSF. These results demonstrate that G-CSF is a potent immunomodulator that stimulates neutrophil recruitment selectively to the site of infection and that can be used to ameliorate the ethanol-induced impairment in bacterial host defense.