[Sleep apnea syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients complicated with cervical and temporomandibular lesions].

All-night polysomnographic studies were performed on ten patients (all female) with rheumatoid arthritis complicated with temporomandibular joint destruction and cervical lesions. The mean age of these subjects was 67.5 yrs, ranging from 48-81 yr. They all had some morphologic abnormalities of cervical spines and/or temporomandibular joints. Sleep study revealed that all of them had sleep apnea; five of them were of obstructive type (obstructive group) while the remaining showed central type of sleep apnea (central group) predominantly. There were no statistically significant differences of the levels of apnea index, mean-nadir SO2 and the lowest SO2 between the obstructive group and the central group. No detectable differences of cephalographic measurements and MRI findings existed between the two groups either. In one patient, nasal-CPAP converted central apnea to normal breathing dramatically. Our observations indicate that the cause of central apnea in RA patients with temporomandibular lesions is collapse of upper airway, inducing inhibitory inputs from the mechanoreceptors in that region.