Control of breathing in obstructive sleep apnea.

We studied the responses of ventilation and occlusion pressure (P100) to hypercapnia, with and without the application of an inspiratory flow-resistive load (12 cm H2O/L/sec), in eight control subjects and in eight subjects with obstructive sleep apnea who did not retain carbon dioxide while awake. The hypercapnic response was assessed by a modification of the Read rebreathing technique. For a given endtidal carbon dioxide, ventilation in control subjects was the same with or without load, and P100 was increased with loading. In contrast, the subjects with sleep apnea decreased their ventilation during loading and did not increase their P100 in response to loading. Relationships between ventilation and P100 were similar in the two groups both with and without load. We conclude that patients with occlusive sleep apnea do not exhibit the normal increase in neural drive to compensate for inspiratory flow-resistive loading.