Obstructive sleep apnea is highly prevalent and more severe disease appears to be associated with higher blood pressure among patients with resistant hypertension, a recent study suggests.

“We believe that OSA plays an important role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of patients with resistant hypertension,” Mireia Dalmases Cleries, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep researcher at the Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova, said in a press release. “Our study shows a dose-response association between OSA severity and blood pressure, especially during the nighttime period.”

Dalmases Cleries and colleagues evaluated 284 patients with resistant hypertension from three countries recruited between April 2016 and July 2018 as an ancillary study to the SARAH study — a multicenter, international, prospective, observational cohort study measuring the effect of OSA and CPAP on cardiovascular outcomes among patients with resistant hypertension. Only patients aged 18 to 75 years with a diagnosis of resistant hypertension confirmed via 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring were included. Patients with life expectancy less than 1 year, undergoing current CPAP treatment or with resistant hypertension secondary to an endocrinological cause, drug treatment, renal artery

A new finding suggests that the pediatric sleep study, used to diagnose pediatric sleep apnea and to measure improvement after surgery, may be an unreliable predictor of who will benefit from having an adenotonsillectomy.

About 500,000 children under age 15 have adenotonsillectomies every year in the U.S. to treat obstructive sleep apnea. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends the surgery as a first-line therapy to treat the condition, which can cause behavioral issues, cardiovascular problems, poor growth, and developmental delays. The premise is that surgically removing or reducing the severity of the obstruction to the upper airway will improve sleep and reduce other problems caused by the disorder.

In 2012, the AAP recommended that pediatricians should screen children who snore regularly for sleep apnea, and refer children suspected of having the condition for an overnight in-laboratory sleep study. The group also recommended an adenotonsillectomy based on the results of the test. But results from the new UMSOM study, published in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics, call into question those recommendations because the data they analyzed found

Great Lakes Dental Technologies has announced the release of a new oral appliance for obstructive sleep apnea and snoring.

The new device, the Medley Sleep Appliance, features a platform with dual configuration options that can accommodate different advancement mechanisms including; rigid nylon links, elastomeric (EMA) straps, or telescopic Herbst rod sleeve arms. Medley offers personalized advancement options without treatment delays or the need for multiple appliances, according to a press release from the manufacturer.

“The Medley Appliance serves the needs of a vast majority of my patients who suffer from sleep apnea and nighttime snoring. I have used this appliance almost exclusively for five years. I am also thrilled to partner with Great Lakes Dental Technologies as the sole laboratory to manufacture my sleep appliances for distribution in the United States and Canada,” Robert Rogers, DMD, DABDSM, inventor of the Medley, says in a statement.

This appliance offers three different design applications to treat a variety of patients.

Philips announced the commercial launch of a prescription sleep position therapy device designed for patients with positional obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The device, called the Philips NightBalance, is strapped around the abdomen and uses gentle vibrations to encourage users to alter their sleeping positions to prevent apneas.

The device includes wireless connectivity and a mobile app that monitors use and provides patients and physicians with access to data via a cloud-based system.

Multiple clinical studies have found that Philips NightBalance offers an effective, non-invasive treatment for positional OSA patients. Most recently, a study funded by Philips in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, “The POSAtive Study: Study for the Treatment of Positional Obstructive Sleep Apnea,” found that NightBalance is a non-inferior treatment to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and demonstrates high adherence rates among positional OSA patients.

In the study, data showed that patients with positional OSA felt NightBalance was easier to use, easier to adjust to and more comfortable than other PAP therapy methods. Additionally, patients who used the sleep position treatment used the device for

The manufacturer of MATRx plus, an at-home sleep theragnostic system that predicts therapeutic outcomes with a custom-fitted oral appliance, is partnering with two billing service providers in the US – Cross Over Dental Enterprises (CODE) and Pristine Medical Billing to offer out-of-network dental clinics medical billing services for oral appliances for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

The decision comes after the manufacturer, Zephyr, identified medical insurance reimbursement as a common key consideration in a patient’s decision to move forward with testing and treatment of OSA.

“Many of the doctors using our MATRx plus home sleep study/ diagnostic therapy system have asked about medical billing.  As this is outside of our area of expertise, we’re more than happy to bring in the experts. Our partners and advisors tell us that CODE and Pristine are those experts,” Paul Cataford, chief executive officer at Zephyr, says in a statement.

The MATRx plus system is an FDA-approved tablet-based, cloud-connected medical device. The device is also known as “The Simple Sleep Solution,” a platform which is designed to streamline workflow and eliminate oral appliance rework. The

There was a rumor circulating that Apple has been working on a new smartwatch sleep tracking app, but so far the company has not released any new apps to tackle the big problem of sleep, reports CNBC.

With a new sleep-tracking app, the technology giant would have followed Fitbit and others. Apple has never been obsessed with being first. Its marketing is always about being better than others. But even better won’t be good enough to solve the sleep crisis.

Bad sleep is a trillion-dollar health-care problem that impacts the mood, well-being and overall health of more than a third of the world’s population. Eighty percent of poor sleep remains undiagnosed and untreated. This is in part due to the cost of diagnosis and not having enough trained experts to deliver adapted treatments.

Disrupted sleep matters, and there is a pressing need for someone, whether Apple or another enterprise, to technologically scale sleep health. But another tracker from Silicon Valley is not likely to be a game changer.

Get the full story at cnbc.com.