Institute of Embedded Systems, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Mannheim, Germany.
University Hospital Mannheim, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Mannheim, Germany.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2020 Mar;274:103351. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2019.103351. Epub 2019 Nov 18.
This study tested whether electrical stimulation of the pharyngeal mucosa is able to induce reliably the swallowing reflex in awake and asleep obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients, and whether the induced reflexes affect the sleep variables. In addition, the latency, occurrence, and morphology of swallows were evaluated. Eight patients received an esophageal catheter that was used on three consecutive nights for electrical stimulation and manometric recordings. The electrical stimulation proved itself safe, but its efficiency in inducing swallows sank from 80.0 % in awake to 37.4 % in sleeping subjects and was lowest in the sleep stage N3. The swallowing reflex was triggered with a mean latency of 3.69 ± 0.70 s, was predominantly induced in the hyperventilation phase, and had no significant effect on the subject's sleep variables. These findings indicate that electrical stimulation can more effectively trigger the swallowing reflex while the subjects are awake than during sleep without showing remarkable clinical benefits in terms of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) improvement.
这项研究旨在测试在清醒和睡眠中阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）患者中，电刺激咽黏膜是否能可靠地诱发吞咽反射，以及诱发的反射是否会影响睡眠变量。此外，还评估了吞咽的潜伏期、发生和形态。8 名患者接受了食管导管，连续三个晚上用于电刺激和测压记录。电刺激被证明是安全的，但它在诱导吞咽方面的效率从清醒时的 80.0%下降到睡眠时的 37.4%，在睡眠阶段 N3 时最低。吞咽反射的潜伏期平均为 3.69 ± 0.70 秒，主要在过度通气阶段诱发，对受试者的睡眠变量没有显著影响。这些发现表明，与睡眠时相比，电刺激在受试者清醒时更有效地引发吞咽反射，而在改善呼吸暂停低通气指数（AHI）方面没有显著的临床益处。
