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We evaluated the influence of untreated obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) on the magnitude of cognitive decline and on several cognitive subdomains in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.In this single-centre study, 144 patients were recruited prospectively from a cognitive impairment unit and underwent overnight polysomnography.The mean±sd change in the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) score at 12 months was 3.19±5.61 in the non-OSA group and 0.08±5.62 in the OSA group, with an intergroup difference of -3.36 (95% CI 0.19-0.16; p=0.002). We did not observe a significant difference in any cognitive subdomains at 12 months. Regarding Mini-Mental State Examination scores at 36 months, the mean change was 1.69 (95% CI -1.26-4.64; p=0.445). No significant differences were found among different OSA severity groups.We observed that ADAS-cog scores were better in the OSA group than in the non-OSA group by a statistically but not clinically significant margin. We did not find differences in the different cognitive subdomains after 1 year or in global cognition after 3 years of follow-up., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: C. Jorge has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Targa has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: I.D. Benítez has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: F. Dakterzada has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Torres has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: O. Minguez has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Carnes has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Pujol has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Gibert has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. López has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A.M. Gaeta has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Dalmases has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Farré has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Sánchez-de-la-Torre has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: F. Barbé has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Piñol-Ripoll has nothing to disclose., (Copyright ©ERS 2020.)

The diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) by polysomnography (PSG) is challenging due to the required collaboration of the patients. In addition, screening questionnaires have demonstrated limited usefulness with this subpopulation. Considering this, we investigated the circulating microRNA (miRNA) profile associated with OSA in AD patients. This study included a carefully selected cohort of females with mild-moderate AD confirmed by biological evaluation (n = 29). The individuals were submitted to one-night PSG to diagnose OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 15/h) and the blood was collected in the following morning. The plasma miRNA profile was evaluated using RT-qPCR. The patients had a mean (SD) age of 75.8 (5.99) years old with a body mass index of 28.6 (3.83) kg m -2 . We observed a subset of 15 miRNAs differentially expressed between OSA and non-OSA patients, of which 10 were significantly correlated with the severity of OSA. Based on this, we built a prediction model that generated an AUC (95% CI) of 0.95 (0.88-1.00) including 5 of the differentially expressed miRNAs that correlated with OSA severity: miR-26a-5p, miR-30a-3p, miR-374a-5p, miR-377-3p, and miR-545-3p. Our preliminary results suggest a plasma miRNA signature associated with the presence of OSA in AD patients. Further studies will be necessary to validate these findings.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with mild-moderate Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and to evaluate cognitive characteristics according to the severity of OSA., Methods: Patients with mild-moderate AD, recruited prospectively from a cognitive impairment unit, underwent overnight polysomnography. OSA was defined as an apnea-hypopnea index > 5/h. AD severity was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination and extensive neuropsychological battery. Epworth Sleepiness Scale and APOE status were analyzed., Results: The cohort included 128 patients with a median [IQR] age of 75.0 [72.0;79.2] years and 57.8% were women. OSA was diagnosed in 116 subjects (90.6%). The distribution of mild, moderate and severe severity of OSA was 29 (22.7%), 37 (28.9%) and 50 (39.1%), respectively. Regarding sleep symptoms, the cohort showed normal values of daytime sleepiness (median EES score 5 [3, 8]), while nycturia (89.1%) and snoring (71.1%) were the most common symptoms. Participants with severe OSA included a higher proportion of older men, were associated with snoring and sedentariness. No significant differences in cognitive assessment were found between patients with and without severe OSA in any of the domains. The prevalence of APOE ε4 was not significantly different between patients with and without severe OSA., Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of OSA in patients with mild-moderate AD. OSA was not associated with sleepiness or worse cognitive function. APOE ε4 was not related to the presence or severity of OSA. Further longitudinal studies will be required to evaluate whether OSA impairs cognitive evolution in AD patients.

Objective: To describe the overall sleep health of the Catalan population using data from the 2015 Catalan Health Survey and to compare the performance of two sleep health indicators: sleep duration and a 5-dimension sleep scale (SATED)., Methods: Multistage probability sampling representative of the non-institutionalized population aged 15 or more years, stratified by age, gender and municipality size, was used, excluding nightshift-workers. A total of 4385 surveys were included in the analyses. Associations between sleep health and the number of reported chronic diseases were assessed using non-parametric smoothed splines. Differences in the predictive ability of age-adjusted logistic regression models of self-rated health status were assessed. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess SATED determinants., Results: Overall mean (SD) sleep duration was 7.18 (1.16) hours; and SATED score 7.91 (2.17) (range 0-10), lower (worse) scores were associated with increasing age and female sex. Alertness and efficiency were the most frequently impaired dimensions across age groups. SATED performed better than sleep duration when assessing self-rated health status (area under the curve = 0.856 vs. 0.798; p-value <0.001), and had a linear relationship with the number of reported chronic diseases, while the sleep duration relationship was u-shaped., Conclusions: Sleep health in Catalonia is associated with age and gender. SATED has some advantaged compared to sleep duration assessment, as it relates linearly to health indicators, has a stronger association with self-rated health status, and provides a more comprehensive assessment of sleep health. Therefore, the inclusion of multi-dimensional sleep health assessment tools in national surveys should be considered.