American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2022
Case ReportsBrain Responses to Propofol in Advance of Recovery From Coma and Disorders of Consciousness: A Preliminary Study.
Rationale: Predicting recovery of consciousness in unresponsive, brain-injured individuals has crucial implications for clinical decision-making. Propofol induces distinctive brain network reconfiguration in the healthy brain as it loses consciousness. In patients with disorders of consciousness, the brain network's reconfiguration to propofol may reveal the patient's underlying capacity for consciousness. ⋯ Measurements and Main Results: The adaptive reconfiguration index was significantly higher in patients who later recovered full consciousness (U value = 21, P = 0.008) and able to discriminate with 100% accuracy whether the patient recovered consciousness. Conclusions: The adaptive reconfiguration index of patients who recovered from a disorder of consciousness at 3-month follow-up was linearly separable from that of patients who did not recover or remained in a chronic disorder of consciousness on the single-subject level. EEG and propofol can be administered at the bedside with few contraindications, affording the adaptive reconfiguration index tremendous translational potential as a prognostic measure of consciousness recovery in acute clinical settings.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2022
Comparative StudyVentilatory Drive Withdrawal Rather Than Reduced Genioglossus Compensation as a Mechanism of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in REM.
Rationale: REM sleep is associated with reduced ventilation and greater obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity than non-REM (nREM) sleep for reasons that have not been fully elucidated. Objectives: Here, we use direct physiological measurements to determine whether the pharyngeal compromise in REM sleep OSA is most consistent with 1) withdrawal of neural ventilatory drive or 2) deficits in pharyngeal pathophysiology per se (i.e., increased collapsibility and decreased muscle responsiveness). Methods: Sixty-three participants with OSA completed sleep studies with gold standard measurements of ventilatory "drive" (calibrated intraesophageal diaphragm EMG), ventilation (oronasal "ventilation"), and genioglossus EMG activity. ⋯ Drive withdrawal was exacerbated in phasic REM sleep. Conclusions: In patients with OSA, the pharyngeal compromise characteristic of REM sleep appears to be predominantly explained by ventilatory drive withdrawal rather than by preferential decrements in muscle activity or responsiveness. Preventing drive withdrawal may be the leading target for REM sleep OSA.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2022
Comparative StudyEfficacy of Inhaled Treprostinil on Multiple Disease Progression Events in Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Parenchymal Lung Disease in the INCREASE Trial.
Rationale: The INCREASE study of inhaled treprostinil met its primary endpoint of change in 6-minute-walk distance at Week 16. In addition, there were significantly fewer clinical worsening events in patients receiving inhaled treprostinil. However, the incidence of multiple events in the same patient is unknown. ⋯ Fewer patients receiving inhaled treprostinil had multiple progression events compared with those receiving the placebo (35 vs. 58, 22% vs. 36%; P = 0.005). Conclusions: Patients who received inhaled treprostinil were significantly less likely to experience further disease progression events after an initial event compared with patients receiving placebo. These results support the continuation of inhaled treprostinil despite the occurrence of disease progression in clinical practice.