The ageing brain in sleep apnoea: paradoxical resilience, survival of the fittest, or simply comparing apples and oranges?

The elevated prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and its association with a long and ever expanding list of end-organ morbidities has prompted substantial interest in identifying mechanistic pathways underlying such deleterious consequences, and their potential reversibility with treatment. Over the last several decades, we have witnessed substantial increases in the granularity of the morbid phenotype of OSA, and such observations have prompted us to rethink some of the stricter early concepts. Among them, rather than viewing OSA as a single disease model that is applicable to all patients, we have formulated the conceptual framework of distinct phenotypes of OSA that may be driven by different mechanisms, link to different clinical manifestations, and display divergent responses to therapy [1–6]. In this contextual setting, the aspirational goals of the field are to first and foremost identify those OSA patients likely to benefit from treatment and administer the correct intervention, i.e. precision medicine [7, 8].
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research