LOS ANGELES, June 12 (UPI) -- Brain imaging scans show sleep apnea patients have brain tissue loss in areas that help store memory, U.S. researchers said.
In sleep apnea, a sleeper's breathing is halted as the airway is blocked by muscle and other tissue. The condition is characterized by loud bursts of snoring and chronic fatigue. The researchers suggest early diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea may help forestall memory loss.
"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles said in a statement.
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to collect high-resolution images of the brains of 43 sleep apnea patients, including slices of the mammillary bodies -- named because they resemble small breasts on the underside of the brain -- and compared the results to images of 66 controls matched for age and gender.
The study, published in the journal Neuroscience Letters, found sleep apnea patients' mammillary bodies were nearly 20 percent smaller.
"The findings are important because patients suffering memory loss from other syndromes, such as alcoholism or Alzheimer disease, also show shrunken mammillary bodies," study lead author Rajesh Kumar said.
| Additional News Stories | |
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 25 (UPI) --
An altered image of U.S. first lady Michelle Obama won't be excluded by Google, despite complaints the image is racist and vile, the company said.
|
NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) --
Singer Adam Lambert said he didn't intend to offend people with his sexy American Music Awards performance, but he doesn't see anything wrong with it either.
|
NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) --
Crude oil prices made up for ground lost Tuesday and added some on the New York Mercantile Exchange, climbing to nearly $78 per barrel Wednesday.
|
|