Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: From Diagnose to Treatment

Dear Colleagues, 

Background & history of this topic:  

Οbstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most prevalent sleep breathing (SDB) disorder. The most frequent symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), snoring and witnessed apneas, but also tiredness, insomnia, headaches and nocturia. The clinical symptoms may help in the referral of patients, but they are not pathognomonic.  OSA’s pathophysiology is multifactorial, including not only an anatomically impaired upper airway, but also other non-anatomical factors (physiological traits), such as low respiratory arousal threshold, high loop gain and poor ability of the upper airway muscles to keep the airway open. The heterogeneity of OSA’s pathogenesis is important as it contributes to the different clinical phenotypes of patients. During recent years, several cluster analysis studies have shown that the classical phenotype of OSA represents only a part of the population and that other phenotypes, with less or more atypical symptoms such as insomnia, may be identified. Additionally, there are gender differences in the clinical presentation of the disease. 

Aim and scope of the specia issue: 

Undiagnosed and untreated OSA has been associated with increased mortality and may have serious implications such as increased cardiovascular disease, hypertension, arrythmias, cerebrovascular disease, heart failure pulmonary hypertension and diabetes. These result in significant economic burden; however, the health, societal and economic consequences of OSA can be decreased with early identification and treatment. The diagnosis and treatment of OSA may be oversimplified when clinicians focus only on the Apnea Hypopneas Index (AHI), not taking into account the whole clinical presentation (symptoms, co-morbidities) of the patient for more personalized treatment. OSA is a chronic disease that requires long-term multidisciplinary management. While there are several treatment options such as CPAP, mandibular advancement devices, weight loss, lifestyle interventions, positional therapy and surgical operations, CPAP is still considered as the gold standard. More recent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of hypoglossal nerve stimulation and pharmacotherapy in selected cases.

Cutting-edge research: 

Research that focuses on the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of OSA is required. There is a need to identify OSA’s key clinical phenotypes to employ more targeted, personalized treatments. Additionally it is important to focus on the identification of predictors of the outcomes of the disease, but also predictors of the efficacy of the applied treatments. 

What kind of papers we are soliciting:  

We are seeking original research and review articles.

Dr. Athanasia Pataka
Guest Editor

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• obstructive sleep apnea
• diagnosis
• risk factors
• treatment
• phenotypes
• consequences
• CPAP
• mandibular advancement devices
• positional therapy
• hypoglossal nerve stimulation
• pharmacotherapy