Decreased Regional Cerebral Perfusion in Moderate-Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnoea during Wakefulness

Study Objectives: To investigate gray matter volume and concentration and cerebral perfusion in people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) while awake. Design: Voxel-based morphometry to quantify gray matter concentration and volume. Arterial spin labeling perfusion imaging to quantify cerebral perfusion. Setting: Lying supine in a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner in the early afternoon. Participants: 19 people with OSA (6 females, 13 males; mean age 56.7 y, range 41-70; mean AHI 18.5, range 5.2-52.8) and 19 controls (13 females, 6 males; mean age: 50.0 y, range 41-81). Interventions: N/A. Results: There were no differences in regional gray matter concentration or volume between participants with OSA and controls. Neither was there any difference in regional perfusion between controls and people with mild OSA (n = 11). However, compared to controls, participants with moderate-severe OSA (n = 8) had decreased perfusion (while awake) in three clusters. The largest cluster incorporated, bilaterally, the paracingulate gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and subcallosal cortex, and the left putamen and left frontal orbital cortex. The second cluster was right-lateralized, incorporating the posterior temporal fusiform cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and hippocampus. The third cluster was located in the right thalamus. Conclusions: There is decreased regional perfusion during wakefulness in participants with moderate-severe obstructive sleep apnea, and these are in brain regions which have shown decreased regional gray matter volume in previous studies in people with severe OSA. Thus, we hypothesize that cerebral perfusion changes are evident before (and possibly underlie) future structural changes.