OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to study the possible differences in clinical and polysomnographic findings, depending on the presence or absence of subjective complaints of abnormal sleep behavior, in patients with RWA on polysomnography. METHOD: We reviewed patient records and polysomnographic data of patients referred to the Sleep Laboratory at Seoul National University Hospital from June 1996 through October 2002. We defined the manifest RBD group (n=32) as patients having both complaints of abnormal sleep behavior and RWA on polysomnography. The latent RBD group (n=20) consisted of patients who exhibited RWA on polysomnography but did not complain of abnormal sleep behavior. The clinical characteristics and polysomnographic findings between the two groups were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: Fifty-two subjects had RWA, as detected by polysomnography (42 males and 10 females, mean age of 55.1+/-19.1 years). Subjects in the manifest RBD group were significantly older than those in the latent RBD group (61.59+/-13.5 vs. 44.70+/-2.76 years, independent t-test, p<0.01). More subjects in the manifest RBD group exhibited abnormal REM behavior on polysomnography than did subjects in the latent RBD group (81.3 vs. 50.0%, Fisher's exact test, p<0.05). No significant differences between the groups were found in the prevalence of brain disorders and primary sleep disorders, gender proportion, and sleep architecture. CONCLUSION: No difference in sleep architecture was found between the manifest and the latent RBD groups. Only age and the presence of abnormal sleep behavior on polysomnography differentiated the two groups. We suggest that RWA on polysomnography without complaints of abnormal sleep behavior may be early manifestation of manifest RBD. Attention to RWA on polysomnography is necessary to help prevent full-blown RBD from developing.
Brain Diseases ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mental Disorders* ; Polysomnography ; Prevalence ; REM Sleep Behavior Disorder ; Seoul ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; Sleep, REM*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence rate of OSA in subjects whose main sleep complaint is insomnia and to find differential factors of OSA in these insomniac subjects. METHOD: We reviewed the medical records and polysomnographic findings of patients referred to the Sleep Laboratory at Seoul National University Hospital from January 1996 to December 2002. Four-hundred and seventy subjects complained of insomnia as their main sleep problem (235 males and 235 females, mean age 53.6+/-12.4 years). First, we investigated the prevalence rate of OSA in these insomniac patients. Second, we compared the clinical and demographic characteristics of the OSA-associated group with those of the non-associated group. Third, we examined whether the degree or presence of differential factors within the OSA group correlate with severity of OSA, as determined by the respiratory disturbance index (RDI). RESULTS: Among 470 insomniac subjects, 125 subjects (26.6%) were diagnosed as OSA by nocturnal polysomnography. OSA-associated subjects were significantly older (58.4+/-12.3 years vs. 51.8+/-11.2 years, p<0.01), and had significantly higher body mass index (BMI) (23.4+/-3.3 kg/m2 vs. 22.5+/-3.1 kg/m2, p=0.44) than non-associated subjects. The OSA-associated group had more subjects with male gender (64.0 % vs. 44.9 %, p<0.01), hypertension (20.0 % vs. 9.3 %, p<0.01) or snoring (96.0 % vs. 63.5 %, p<0.01). Within the OSA-associated group, age had a significant positive correlation with RDI (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: We found that a considerable portion of patients complaining of insomnia as their main sleep problem were diagnosed as OSA. Snoring, old age, male gender, obesity, and comorbid hypertension were found to be differential factors of OSA in insomniac patients. We suggest that diagnostic efforts including nocturnal polysomnography are needed for insomniac patients with any of the above risk factors of OSA.
Body Mass Index ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Medical Records ; Obesity ; Polysomnography ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Seoul ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive* ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders* ; Snoring

No abstract available.
Child* ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Rotavirus*

No abstract available.
Diagnosis*

No abstract available.
Diagnosis*

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical and polysomnographic characteristics of Korean patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), especially in relation to differences due to age and gender. METHODS: All subjects were consecutive patients who were proven to have OSAS with nocturnal polysomnography. They were interviewed with a structured interview format including sociodemographic information, past medical history, medication, and sleep-related history. Simultaneously, they were also given Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) to answer in order to check subjective sleep quality and subjective sleepiness. RESULTS: Mean age of the 308 subjects was 49.5+/-13.3 years, with 77.6% of the subjects being males and 22.4% of the subjects being females. The aging effects on the sleep architecture in Korean OSAS corresponded with normal aging, but with the effect of OSAS itself superimposed, the extent of aging effects was more marked than that of normal aging. The severity of Korean patients of OSAS was not correlated with age. When divided into age subgroups, significant correlation was found between RDI and BMI in patients of each subgroup of those in the 4th to 7th decades. The oldest subgroup (>70 years) described their subjective sleep quality as poorer than any other age subgroups, despite of less subjective drowsiness. The severity of OSAS and the change of sleep architecture of male subjects turned out to be severer than those of female ones. The female/male ratio of the subjects tended to increase with aging. CONCLUSIONS: The aging effect on the sleep architecture in Korean OSAS seems to be a mixture of the changes by normal aging and sleep disorder per se. The severity of OSAS was not correlated with age, but highly correlated with BMI. The severity of OSAS and the change of sleep architecture of male patients were severer than those of female ones.
Aging ; Body Mass Index ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ; Sleep Stages

A synophthalmia, another form of cyclopia, in which the element of the two eyes are partially fused to form an apparently single eye in the middle of the forehead. The synophthalmia is a result of complex, neural plate misdevelopment syndrome involving the eye, brain, skull and face. It is well known that synophthalmia is due to heterogenous causes, most of which chromosomal imbalances. We experienced a case of synophthalmia associated with proboscis, alobar holoprosencephaly and chromosomal anomaly 46, XX, -15,t (15 q, 21 q). Diagnosis was confirmed by brain MRI and autopsy, The patient died about 20 hours of age and autopsy was done. A brief review of the literatures was also presented.
Autopsy ; Brain ; Diagnosis ; Forehead ; Holoprosencephaly ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neural Plate ; Skull

INTRODUNTION: The objective of the present study was to investigate bedtime, rise time and time-in-bed of Korean college students, separately on weekday and on weekend and to compare them. In addition, this study also aimed to evaluate the influence of gender, age and grade on the above sleep parmeters in Korean college students. METHODS: Information regarding bedtime and rise time, separately on weekday and on weekend, of Korean college students were obtained by self-administered questionnaire. Questionnaires of 1,825 students (1,416 females and 409 males, age 18-30 ; mean age 21.1+/-2.2) were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: Korean college students retired to bed 50 minutes later (00 : 49 on weekday ; 01 : 40 on weekend ; t=39.67, p<0.001), rose 1 hour 58 minutes later (07 : 52 on weekday ; 09 : 50 on weekend ; t=39.46, p<0.001), and slept 1 hour 8 minutes longer (t=13.33, p<0.001) on weekend. Compared to male students, female students had earlier rise time (t=8.96, p<0.01 ; t=3.89, p<0.01) and earlier bedtime both on weekday and weekend (t=7.10, p<0.01; t=6.04, p<0.01), and shorter time-in-bed on weekday (t=1.99, p<0.01). In addition, rise time delay and time-in-bed increase on weekend were more prominent in female students than in male students (t=3.41, p<0.01 ; t=3.68, p<0.01). Grade was correlated with bedtime and rise time on weekday (beta=0.1022, p<0.01 ; beta=0.1009, p<0.01), bedtime and time-in-bed on weekend (beta=0.1096, p<0.01 ; beta=-0.0990, p<0.01), and differences between weekday and weekend of the rise time and the time-in-bed (beta=-0.0906, p<0.01 ; beta=-0.1115, p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, Korean college students had earlier bedtime/rise time and shorter time-in-bed on weekday than on weekend. These findings suggest that weekday sleep-wake schedule of Korean college students may be advanced relative to their biological sleep-wake cycle and that this discrepancy may be associated with weekday sleep deprivation. In addition, differences of sleep patterns between weekday and weekend were more prominent in female students and students with lower grade. Therefore, discrepancy between weekday sleep-wake schedule and biological sleep-wake cycle, as well as weekday sleep deprivation, might be more serious in female or lower-grade students.
Appointments and Schedules ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sleep Deprivation

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to assess cognitive functions and their relationship with sleep symptoms in young narcoleptic patients. METHODS: Eighteen young narcolepsy patients and 18 normal controls (age: 17-35 years old) were recruited. All narcolepsy patients had HLA DQB1 *0602 allele and cataplexy. Several important areas of cognition were assessed by a battery of neuropsychological tests consisting of 13 tests: executive functions (e.g. cognitive set shifting, inhibition, and selective attention) through Wisconsin card sorting test, Trail Making A/B, Stroop test, Ruff test, Digit Symbol, Controlled Oral Word Association and Boston Naming Test; alertness and sustained attention through paced auditory serial addition test; verbal/nonverbal short-term memory and working memory through Digit Span and Spatial Span; visuospatial memory through Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test; verbal learning and memory through California verbal learning test; and fine motor activity through grooved pegboard test. Sleep symptoms in narcolepsy patients were assessed with Epworth sleepiness scale, Ullanlinna narcolepsy scale, multiple sleep latency test, and nocturnal polysomnography. Relationship between cognitive functions and sleep symptoms in narcolepsy patients was also explored. RESULTS: Compared with normal controls, narcolepsy patients showed poor performance in paced auditory serial addition (2.0 s and 2.4 s), digit symbol tests, and spatial span (forward) (t=3.86, p< 0.01; t=-2.47, p=0.02; t=-3.95, p< 0.01; t=-2.22, p=0.03, respectively). There were no significant between-group differences in other neuropsychological tests. In addition, results of neuropsychological test in narcolepsy patients were not correlated with Epworth sleepiness scale score, Ullanlinna narcolepsy scale score and sleep variables in multiple sleep latency test or nocturnal polysomnography. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that young narcolepsy patients have impaired attention. In addition, impairment of attention in narcolepsy might not be solely due to sleep symptoms such as excessive daytime sleepiness.
Alleles ; California ; Cataplexy ; Cognition ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory, Short-Term ; Motor Activity ; Narcolepsy* ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Polysomnography ; Stroop Test ; Trail Making Test ; Verbal Learning ; Wisconsin

The unilateral megalencephaly is a rare brain malformation characterized by cerebral asymmetry and cortical dysplasia caused by faulty migration of the subependymal neuroblasts. We experienced a case of unilateral megalencephaly in a two day-old male with the chief complaint of asymmetric head appearance. Large left hemisphere with agyria, pachygyria, dilatation of lateral ventricle, and the thick cortex of the ipsilateral hemisphere were showed in brain MRL, Clinical findings in this case were intractable seizure, hemiparesis, and psychomotor retardation. A review of literatures was also presented briefly.
Brain ; Dilatation ; Head ; Humans ; Lateral Ventricles ; Lissencephaly ; Male ; Malformations of Cortical Development ; Paresis ; Seizures