Physiotherapy - Research Publications

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    Periodic limb movements in tetraplegia
    Peters, AEJ ; van Silfhout, L ; Graco, M ; Schembri, R ; Thijssen, D ; Berlowitz, DJ (TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2018)
    OBJECTIVE: To establish the prevalence of Periodic Limb Movements during Sleep (PLMS) in patients with tetraplegia, controlling for obstructive sleep apnea. To explore whether demographic and injury characteristics affect PLMS. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohorts. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: One hundred seventy-three participants with acute (<12 months) and 92 with chronic (>12 months) tetraplegia who underwent full overnight diagnostic sleep studies. INTERVENTIONS AND OUTCOME MEASURES: Two hundred sixty-two sleep study recordings were included. A randomly selected subgroup of 21 studies was assessed for PLM during wakefulness. Data were analysed according to the current American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines. RESULTS: Of the participants, 41.6% (43(15.7) years and 14.9% female) had a motor and sensory complete lesion. Sleep was poor with both OSA (87.8% with apnea hypopnoea index ≥ 5) and PLMS (58.4% with PLMS per hour PLMSI > 15) highly prevalent. There was no difference in the PLMSI between those with OSA (36.3(39.8)) or without (42.2(37.7), P = 0.42). PLMS were evident during REM and NREM sleep in all of the 153 patients with PLMSI > 15. All 21 participants in the subgroup of studies analysed for the PLM during quiet wakefulness, exhibited limb movements. None of the modelled variables (injury completeness, gender, OSA severity or time since injury) significantly predicted a PLMSI > 15 (P = 0.343). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study confirms the high prevalence of PLM in tetraplegia and the presence of leg movements in NREM and REM sleep along with wakefulness after controlling for OSA. No associations between the presence of PLMS and patient characteristics or injury specific aspects were found.
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    Positive airway pressure for sleep-disordered breathing in acute quadriplegia: a randomised controlled trial
    Berlowitz, DJ ; Schembri, R ; Graco, M ; Ross, JM ; Ayas, N ; Gordon, I ; Lee, B ; Graham, A ; Cross, SV ; McClelland, M ; Kennedy, P ; Thumbikat, P ; Bennett, C ; Townson, A ; Geraghty, TJ ; Pieri-Davies, S ; Singhal, R ; Marshall, K ; Short, D ; Nunn, A ; Mortimer, D ; Brown, D ; Pierce, RJ ; Cistulli, PA ; Acland, R ; Alexander, JL ; Backwell, AE ; Booker, L ; Chowdhury, JR ; Davies, A ; Duce, B ; Dytor, R ; Fox, N ; Allen, AJH ; Hislop, DM ; Jones, R ; Jones, T ; Li, C ; Leigh, M ; Leighton, S ; MacLellan, L ; Middleton, V ; Millard, MS ; Nier, L ; O'Keeffe, L ; Osman, A ; Patti, J ; Pick, V ; Ruehland, WR ; Spong, J ; Sutherland, K ; Van Lit, AM ; Whittall, C (BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP, 2019-03)
    RATIONALE: Highly prevalent and severe sleep-disordered breathing caused by acute cervical spinal cord injury (quadriplegia) is associated with neurocognitive dysfunction and sleepiness and is likely to impair rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether 3 months of autotitrating CPAP would improve neurocognitive function, sleepiness, quality of life, anxiety and depression more than usual care in acute quadriplegia. METHODS AND MEASUREMENTS: Multinational, randomised controlled trial (11 centres) from July 2009 to October 2015. The primary outcome was neurocognitive (attention and information processing as measure with the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task). Daytime sleepiness (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale) was a priori identified as the most important secondary outcome. MAIN RESULTS: 1810 incident cases were screened. 332 underwent full, portable polysomnography, 273 of whom had an apnoea hypopnoea index greater than 10. 160 tolerated at least 4 hours of CPAP during a 3-day run-in and were randomised. 149 participants (134 men, age 46±34 years, 81±57 days postinjury) completed the trial. CPAP use averaged 2.9±2.3 hours per night with 21% fully 'adherent' (at least 4 hours use on 5 days per week). Intention-to-treat analyses revealed no significant differences between groups in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (mean improvement of 2.28, 95% CI -7.09 to 11.6; p=0.63). Controlling for premorbid intelligence, age and obstructive sleep apnoea severity (group effect -1.15, 95% CI -10 to 7.7) did not alter this finding. Sleepiness was significantly improved by CPAP on intention-to-treat analysis (mean difference -1.26, 95% CI -2.2 to -0.32; p=0.01). CONCLUSION: CPAP did not improve Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task scores but significantly reduced sleepiness after acute quadriplegia. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN12605000799651.