American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF) research grants support strategic scientific studies that contribute to the understanding of sleep and sleep disorders. These projects involve diverse topics of study and yield results that promise to shape the future of sleep research and sleep medicine.
These updates highlight the progress of some recent studies that were supported by ASMF grants:
Project Title: Portable Monitoring in the Diagnosis and Management of OSA
Principal Investigator: Carol L. Rosen, MD
Co-Investigator: Susan Redline, MD, MPH
Status: Ongoing
Update: The grant for this large-scale, multi-center, randomized, head-to-head study is the largest that the ASMF has awarded. The initial enrollment and study of more than 350 patients is scheduled to take place from July 2007 to June 2008. The final study report is scheduled to be completed by March 2009.
Project Title: A 1H-MRS study of altered regional brain GABA in primary insomnia
Principal Investigator: David T. Plante, MD
Co-Investigator: Shirin Shafazand, MD, FAASM
Status: Ongoing
Update: Through an ASMF Physician-Scientist Training Award, this study examines the neurochemistry of insomnia by examining whether GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, is decreased in specific brain regions in subjects with Primary Insomnia compared to healthy sleeper controls.
Project Title: Mapping the brain’s transcriptional response during sleep disordered breathing
Principal Investigator: Sina Gharib, MD
Status: Ongoing
Update: Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a prevalent disorder and associated with significant cardiovascular and neuro-cognitive morbidities. We propose to examine gene expression profiles of the basal forebrain in mice subjected to intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. We intend to develop and apply novel computational methods to create gene interaction networks that will map the relationships among activated pathways in the basal forebrain during SDB and allow us to identify key regulatory targets.
Project Title: Evaluation of the circadian time of sleep in women with and without insomnia
Principal Investigator: Sean Cain, PhD
Status: Ongoing
Update: Though it is well-established that insomnia is more prevalent in women, there is little understanding about the physiological cause of this sex difference. We have found significant sex differences in the biological time on sleep, with habitual sleep occurring at a much later biological time in women than men. As sleep propensity and structure vary with circadian phase, the present project tests the hypothesis that sleeping at a later circadian phase contributes to the high incidence of insomnia in women.
Project Title: Central versus obstructive respiratory events in sleep disordered breathing
Principal Investigator: Anne Mooney, MD
Status: Ongoing
Update: This pilot study aims to examine the utility of non-invasive parameters derived solely from the airflow signal to differentiate central from obstructive sleep disordered breathing events. Early data analysis suggests that a combination of inspiratory flow limitation and changes in inspiratory time have high sensitivity and specificity. Patient enrollment is ongoing and is expected to be completed by June 2010.
Project Title: Sleep knowledge, attitude and social cognition in Hispanic patients with sleep disordered breathing
Principal Investigator: Shirin Shafazand, MD
Status: Ongoing
Update: There is a significant paucity of information on sleep knowledge and attitudes, OSA prevalence, and PAP compliance rates in Hispanic patients. The aims of this project are to determine Hispanic patients' knowledge of sleep problems, the prevalence of OSA, compliance with PAP therapy, and determinants of compliance in this population will be examined.