Sleep Apnea Syndrome: 'The Silent Killer'

The article was professionally consulted with MSc.BS Nguyen Huy Nhat - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital.

"Sleep apnea" is an increasingly common syndrome today, if left for a long time, it will seriously affect health and have the risk of sudden death. Early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment will eliminate the risk of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and reduce the possibility of sudden death.

According to experts on respiratory pathology, sleep apnea is during sleep, the patient stops air circulation for more than 10 seconds, sometimes the air circulation is reduced called hypoventilation, the flow decreases by more than 50%. well over 10 seconds. It is when breathing stops or reduces breathing so that air cannot flow into the lungs to bring oxygen to the brain. Called apnea and hypopnea when 1 hour more than 5 times.

Sleep apnea syndrome is common in children, young adults, middle-aged and elderly people. The most susceptible cases are those at risk of being overweight, obese, having metabolic or cardiovascular diseases (with high blood pressure, difficult to control blood pressure) or diabetic patients with difficult sugar control. blood.
According to experts, sleep apnea prevents air from entering the lungs to exchange oxygen, causing systemic hypoxia affecting blood vessels in the heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, brain... causing a series of metabolic disorders, increased blood pressure, affecting the blood vessels of the brain, blood vessels in the heart and throughout the body leading to hypertension, there is a risk of coronary artery, cerebrovascular, can be infarct. myocardial infarction, stroke due to cerebral embolism, cerebral hemorrhage. Therefore, long-term sleep apnea has serious health effects and has a risk of sudden death.
In the short term, sleep apnea affects concentration in study, work, and labor, especially can cause hyperactivity in young children, causing danger when participating in traffic.

Notable symptoms are snoring, very loud snoring, and the patient has an episode of apnea witnessed by relatives.
Specifically, the patient is snoring very evenly, naturally there is no sound coming out, after 10 seconds, he begins to see the patient move, choke and then snore again, which is a sign of apnea; The patient feels suffocated, suffocated, and has difficulty breathing while sleeping. Another remarkable manifestation is that the patient often wakes up at night, can urinate 3-4 times, does not sleep well; wake up tired, morning headache, not refreshed, very sleepy, difficult to concentrate...

For prevention, experts recommend that as soon as the initial symptoms appear, it is necessary to visit a respiratory specialist to have the earliest treatment plan. "The detailed monitoring of the disease status as well as the accompanying pathological manifestations will provide the most effective treatment regimen" - the experts confirmed.
Currently, a modern, accurate diagnosis is to use a sleep polygraph to record all abnormal signs in sleep. Polysomnography is based on the most commonly used functional tests in the diagnosis of sleep apnea syndrome. This method is often considered the standard for diagnosing sleep apnea, determining its severity, and evaluating other sleep disorders with or without sleep apnea.

Currently, Vinmec health system has deployed a sleep measurement service. Unlike conventional sleep polygraphs that can only diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, Vinmec International General Hospital uses the Sapphire PSG sleep polysomnography system. This is a comprehensive sleep monitoring system developed by CleveMed that can diagnose obstructive, central or mixed sleep apnea causes. This machine system has 22 channels to receive signals such as: electroencephalogram, electromyogram, electrocardiogram, electrocardiogram, measuring oxygen saturation, measuring airway pressure, determining snoring, thoracic induction, induction of drive abdomen, blood pressure, temperature...

In particular, Vinmec gathers leading respiratory experts, especially experienced in: Respiratory diseases, especially Sleep apnea such as: Doctor Nguyen Ngoc Bach, Doctor Tran Thi Diem Trang, .. Senior advisors: Doctor Dinh Xuan Anh Tuan, Doctor Francis Martin.

By: Newspaper