Breathing problem dementia ‘warning’

Experts are not sure how sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and Alzheimer’s are linked.

But evidence suggests some people who suffer from the sleep problem may already be starting to develop pre-symptomatic dementia.

SDB is an umbrella term for a group of conditions that affect breathing during sleep.

The most common is obstructive sleep apnoea, which affects around four per cent of middle-aged men and two per cent of middle-aged women in the UK.

Sleep apnoea results in breathing being repeatedly interrupted during sleep and is often accompanied by heavy snoring.

Dr Ricardo Osorio, from New York University School of Medicine in the US, who led the new research, said: “We know that about 10 to 20 per cent of middle-aged adults in the United States have SDB and that the number jumps dramatically in those over the age of 65.

“We don’t know why it becomes so prevalent but one factor may be that some of these patients are in the earliest pre-clinical stages of AD (Alzheimer’s disease).”

A group of 68 men and women with an average age of 71 and no evidence of dementia took part in the study.

Around half (48.5 per cent) were found to have mild SDB and a quarter had moderate-to-severe SDB.

The volunteers had spinal fluid tests and brain scans to identify any early biochemical signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s biomarkers were found only among lean participants with SDB. In these patients, a progressive association was seen between the severity of SDB and the level of two indicators based on proteins and brain scans.

Lean patients with SDB also tended to have a smaller hippocampus – a part of the brain crucial to memory – than other participants.

The findings were presented at the American Thoracic Society’s conference in Philadelphia.