[Changes of breathing during sleep in normal condition and in neurological alterations on different levels of respiratory regulation].

Disturbances of the rhythm and depth of the respiratory movements during sleep are common phenomena among healthy individuals. These disturbances could manifest themselves as apnoea, hypopnoea or some pathological types of breathing not affecting human wellbeing and functioning. When the quantity of breathing disturbances exceeds the specified threshold the clinical syndromes of sleep disordered breathing appear, each of them having their own clinical features and ways of pathogenesis. 343 patients (162 males and 181 females) with different forms of neurological lesions which could affect respiratory regulation on cerebral, spinal, neural and muscular levels were studied. It was found that the most prominent sleep breathing disturbances develop with the damage on a central level of respiratory regulation. There was certain specificity in the occurrence of different types of disordered breathing depending on the level of impact.