A mask that
delivers pressurized air to help sleep apnea patients breathe easy and
get their shut-eye also appears to help treat nocturnal heartburn, research
reveals.
Gastroesophageal
reflux disease, or GERD, is a common disturbance brought on by severe heartburn
and regurgitation of stomach acid into the throat. Patients who suffer
from the condition's nighttime variety can stop breathing for up to 10
seconds or longer while sleeping.
It is estimated
more than half to three-quarters of patients with obstructive sleep apnea,
a condition in which breathing is blocked repeatedly during sleep, have
nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux -- also called acid reflux -- as well.
Researchers
at the University of South Alabama Sleep Disorders Clinic, as well as at
Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., studied 331 patients diagnosed
with obstructive sleep apnea. Of those, 61 percent reported symptoms of
nighttime acid reflux. The researchers tested those 189 patients with a
mask used to treat sleep apnea called continuous positive airway pressure,
or CPAP.
The mask is
attached to a machine that administers pressurized air through the patient's
nostrils. This pressure keep nasal airways open, allowing patients to breathe
steadily without interruption and making for a better night's sleep. CPAP
relieves sleep apnea, but does not cure it. It also must be used every
night to be effective.
CPAP treatment
among the acid reflux sufferers resulted in a 48 percent overall drop in
frequency of nighttime acid reflux symptoms, researchers report in the
Jan. 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Of 165 patients who stuck
with the CPAP therapy, 74.5 percent showed improvement in their acid reflux
symptoms. The other 16 patients who discontinued CPAP to serve as a control
group showed only a 31.3 percent improvement.
Researchers
said they think CPAP works for acid reflux by increasing pressure in the
thorax to prevent acid from coming back up. One of the root causes linking
sleep apnea to acid reflux, researchers explained, is obesity, a condition
that affects 61 percent of the American population, according to Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Lead study author
Dr. John O'Connor, a gastroenterologist at Duke University, told United
Press International the extra tissue in the throat created by obesity can
keep air passages blocked so "they don't tend to stay as open as they should."
Using the air mask "kills two birds with one stone," he said.
Dr. Stuart Spechler,
chief of the gastroenterology division at Dallas VA Medical Center at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said though
the study was "excellent" and CPAP helps, it is unrealistic to expect patients
to be willing to use the masks while sleeping every night.
"I don't think
this is going to be a major practical treatment for the many millions of
Americans who have acid reflux," Spechler told UPI. "That would be the
problem in generalizing those results of the study."
--
Copyright 2003 by United
Press International.
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