(Press-News.org) A machine commonly used for pain relief has shown to improve breathing in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea, a clinical trial has found.
Results of the TESLA trial, published today in eClinical Medicine by researchers from King’s College London and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, shows the potential of a new therapeutic option for patients using a transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TENS) machine.
Sleep apnoea affects about 1 billion people worldwide, and millions in the UK. The condition can be frequently associated with snoring; people who are affected stop breathing many times during the night. The condition leaves people excessively sleepy during the day, lacking attention, and sometimes experiencing headaches. People diagnosed with sleep apnoea are advised not to drive when feeling excessively sleepy.
Many people with sleep apnoea may use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which pumps air into a mask you wear over your mouth or nose while you sleep. However, only about 75% of patients adhere to CPAP after 3-months, and after five years of treatment this is down to about 25%. Evidence-based alternatives for CPAP are limited but include a specialised mouth guard which pushes the lower jaw forward - known as a mandibular advancement devices (MAD) - and, in some cases, surgical options.
The TENS machine used in the TESLA trial is a small, battery-operated device that has leads connected to sticky pads called electrodes. It is commonly used to reduce pain from conditions such as arthritis and during labour, but has not been used for people with obstructive sleep apnoea before.
The TESLA trial shows this can be a cheap and non-invasive treatment method in responders. Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea were randomised and set to receive a TENS machine or CPAP. The light and continuous electric stimulation of the machine is enough to keep the airway open while asleep, allowing easy breathing to continue.
Patients treated with TENS showed improvements in nocturnal breathing and a significant reduction of daytime exhaustion.
The trial also shows that this treatment could be considered for patients who do not respond well to CPAP, providing a second line treatment that is cheaper and less time consuming to roll out than current alternatives.
Professor Joerg Steier, a professor of respiratory and sleep medicine at King’s College London and a consultant from Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Not all patients with obstructive sleep apnoea are able to use CPAP therapy, often because the mask can be uncomfortable and in severe cases can lead to sleep deprivation. Alternatives for CPAP include mandibular advancement devices, and sometimes surgical options like hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) which requires a pre-assessment, surgical implantation, activation and follow up appointments.
“In contrast, a TENS machine is non-invasive, has little side effects, and is cheap. The TESLA trial shows us the potential of a new therapeutic option, transcutaneous electrical stimulation, and it will be interesting to see how the method can be used in clinical practice.”
A multi-centre trial is now being planned to prove efficacy in different healthcare systems.
END
TENS machine provides cheaper and non-invasive treatment for sleep apnoea
2023-08-03
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Better coaching to promote a person’s growth
2023-08-03
CLEVELAND—What if there was a more effective way to coach and inspire your employees? Athletes? Students? Even your kids?
A new study by a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University suggests there is.
Their newly published work used neuroimaging to peer into the brains of participants as they responded to two different styles of coaching. The researchers wanted to see what happens in the brain that either helps people grow or causes them to resist change.
“You could say it’s about how we get around the problem that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink,” said Anthony “Tony” ...
Canadian paleontologists discover microvertebrate faunal assemblages in Manitoba, Canada
2023-08-03
Canadian vertebrate palaeontologist, Aaron Kilmury, and a team of researchers from the University of Manitoba have published new research in PeerJ Life and Environment, unveiling the first-ever formal description of microvertebrate fossil assemblages from the late Cenomanian to middle Turonian periods in Manitoba, Canada.
“One of the most significant findings of this study is that the new microvertebrate material described from Manitoba shares several similarities with microvertebrate assemblages collected ...
Robots cause company profits to fall – at least at first
2023-08-03
Researchers have found that robots can have a ‘U-shaped’ effect on profits: causing profit margins to fall at first, before eventually rising again.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, studied industry data from the UK and 24 other European countries between 1995 and 2017, and found that at low levels of adoption, robots have a negative effect on profit margins. But at higher levels of adoption, robots can help increase profits.
According to the researchers, this U-shaped phenomenon is due to the relationship between reducing costs, developing new processes ...
Researchers are using monkey poop to learn how an endangered species chooses its mates
2023-08-03
Northern muriquis, which live in the Atlantic forest of Brazil, are one of the most endangered species of monkey in the world. Choosing good mates and rearing thriving offspring are key to the species’ long-term survival.
To better understand what goes on in the mating lives of muriquis, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin–Madison turned to the monkeys’ poop to help gain insight into how the primates choose their mates.
In a paper published on Aug. 2 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the scientists combined genetic analysis with long-term behavioral observations to better understand the ...
Study shows care hotel model can successfully shorten hospital stays and reduce costs for non-emergency procedures
2023-08-03
CONTACT: Camille Jewell
cjewell@vancomm.com or 202-248-5460
SAN DIEGO—Using a “care hotel” model, which discharges patients to a specialty hospital hotel after smaller surgeries, can lower costs and shorten patients’ time in the hospital, according to a study presented today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 20th Annual Meeting.
Rising health care costs pose a significant financial burden across the U.S., especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic Florida ...
Procedure for treating adults with severe stroke is also safe and effective for treating children, research shows
2023-08-03
CONTACT: Camille Jewell
cjewell@vancomm.com or 202-248-5460
SAN DIEGO—A study presented today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 20th Annual Meeting noted that mechanical thrombectomy, a standard treatment for adults with a large vessel occlusion, a type of severe ischemic stroke, is also safe and effective for treating children.
A large vessel occlusion is caused by a blood clot that blocks a large vessel, cutting off significant blood flow to the brain. The faster that patients with this kind of stroke receive mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure ...
Researchers find drugs that reduce infant death may lead to long-term health issues
2023-08-03
HAMILTON, ON (August 2, 2023) – Steroids commonly offered to pregnant people with increased risk of preterm birth may be unnecessary and may leadto long-term health issues for the infants, according to new research led by McMaster University.
The research, published in The BMJ on Aug. 2, analyzed data from 1.6 million infants and found approximately 40 per cent of infants with early exposure to corticosteroids – defined as exposure at 34 weeks gestation or earlier – were born at term. The full-term infants had an increased risk of both short and long-term health issues, including neonatal intensive care admission, ...
New studies shed more light on potential risks of antenatal steroids
2023-08-03
Two new studies published by The BMJ today examine the potential health risks for infants of giving steroid drugs to women who are at risk of giving birth early.
Taken together, the results highlight the need for doctors to be aware of the potential risks and to exercise caution when considering antenatal steroid treatment.
Babies born early (preterm) carry a greater risk of death and serious complications such as breathing difficulties, bleeding into the brain, and infection than babies born at term. These problems tend to be more severe the earlier the baby is born.
Corticosteroids are known to help increase the ...
People with a hepatitis C cure still face substantial risk of death
2023-08-03
Individuals who have been cured of hepatitis C infection still face a substantially greater risk of death compared with the general population - between 3 and 14 times higher depending on liver disease stage, finds the largest study of its kind published by The BMJ today.
Based on data from more than 20,000 patients with a hepatitis C cure, the results show that drug and liver-related causes of death were the main drivers of excess deaths - and highlight the importance of continued support to fully realise the benefits of a hepatitis C cure.
Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect the liver which, if left untreated, can cause ...
New HIV drug formulation could improve treatment outcomes for children worldwide
2023-08-03
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have helped confirm the dosing, safety and effectiveness of a drug formulation designed for treating children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The study was published today in The Lancet HIV and reveals a new dispersible formulation and an immediate-release tablet containing three medications - dolutegravir, abacavir and lamivudine - in a single fixed dose combination (FDC) formulation is safe, well tolerated, and effective for treating children with HIV. The dosing based on the concentrations of each medication in the blood was also appropriate.
“This is the first FDC containing dolutegravir ...