Continuous positive airway pressure: evaluation of a novel therapy for patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Bravata DM, Concato J, Fried T, Ranjbar N, Sadarangani T, McClain V, Struve F, Zygmunt L, Knight HJ, Lo A, Richerson GB, Gorman M, Williams LS, Brass LM, Agostini J, Mohsenin V, Roux F, Yaggi HK. Continuous positive airway pressure: evaluation of a novel therapy for patients with acute ischemic stroke. Sleep. 2011 Sep 1; 34(9):1271-7.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: New approaches are needed to treat patients with stroke. Among acute ischemic stroke patients, our primary objectives were to describe the prevalence of sleep apnea and demonstrate the feasibility of providing auto-titrating continuous positive airway pressure (auto-CPAP). A secondary objective was to examine the effect of auto-CPAP on stroke severity. METHODS: Stroke patients randomized to the intervention group received 2 nights of auto-CPAP, but only those with evidence of sleep apnea received auto-CPAP for the remainder of the 30-day period. Intervention patients received polysomnography 30 days post-stroke. Control patients received polysomnography at baseline and after 30 days. Acceptable auto-CPAP adherence was defined as 4 h/night for 75% nights. Change in stroke severity was assessed comparing the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at baseline versus at 30 days. RESULTS: The 2 groups (intervention N = 31, control N = 24) had similar baseline stroke severity (both median NIHSS, 3.0). Among patients with complete polysomnography data, the majority had sleep apnea: baseline, 13/15 (86.7%) control patients; 30 days, 24/35 (68.6%) control and intervention patients. Intervention patients had greater improvements in NIHSS (-3.0) than control patients (-1.0); P = 0.03. Among patients with sleep apnea, greater improvement was observed with increasing auto-CPAP use: -1.0 for control patients not using auto-CPAP; -2.5 for intervention patients with some auto-CPAP use; and -3.0 for intervention patients with acceptable auto-CPAP adherence. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of acute stroke patients had sleep apnea. Auto-CPAP was well tolerated, appears to improve neurological recovery from stroke, and may represent a new therapeutic approach for selected patients with acute cerebral infarction.