Drive versus Pressure Contributions to Genioglossus Activity in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Loss of pharyngeal dilator muscle activity is a key determinant of respiratory events in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). After the withdrawal of wakefulness stimuli to the genioglossus at sleep onset, mechanoreceptor negative pressure and chemoreceptor ventilatory drive feedback govern genioglossus activation during sleep, but the relative contributions of drive and pressure stimuli to genioglossus activity across progressive obstructive events remain unclear. We recently showed that drive typically falls during events, whereas negative pressures increase, providing a means to assess their individual contributions to the time course of genioglossus activity. For the first time, we critically test whether the loss of drive could explain the loss of genioglossus activity observed within events in OSA. We examined the time course of genioglossus activity (EMGgg; intramuscular electromyography), ventilatory drive (intraesophageal diaphragm electromyography), and esophageal pressure during spontaneous respiratory events (using the ensemble-average method) in 42 patients with OSA (apnea-hypopnea index 5-91 events/h). Multivariable regression demonstrated that the falling-then-rising time course of EMGgg may be well explained by falling-then-rising drive and rising negative pressure stimuli (model  = 0.91 [0.88-0.98] [95% confidence interval]). Overall, EMGgg was 2.9-fold (0.47-∞) more closely associated with drive than pressure stimuli (ratio of standardized coefficients, β:β; ∞ denotes absent pressure contribution). However, individual patient results were heterogeneous: approximately one-half ( = 22 of 42) exhibited drive-dominant responses (i.e., β:β > 2:1), and one-quarter ( = 11 of 42) exhibited pressure-dominant EMGgg responses (i.e., β:β < 1:2). Patients exhibiting more drive-dominant EMGgg responses experienced greater event-related EMGgg declines (12.9 [4.8-21.0] %/standard deviation of β:β;  = 0.004, adjusted analysis). Loss of genioglossus activity precipitating events in patients with OSA is strongly associated with a contemporaneous loss of drive and is greatest in those whose activity tracks drive rather than pressure stimuli. These findings were upheld for events without prior arousal. Responding to falling drive rather than rising negative pressure during events may be deleterious; future therapeutic strategies whose aim is to sustain genioglossus activity by preferentially enhancing responses to rising pressure rather than falling drive are of interest.