Bone Marrow Reconversion May Correlate to Nocturnal Desaturation in OSA Patients

August 11, 2006

According to a report on NewsRx.com, a study published in Radiologia Medica finds that obstructive sleep apnea patients exhibit a correlation between bone marrow reconversion and the severity of nocturnal oxygen desaturation.

NewsRx.com reports that the researchers found the following in their study of 33 OSA patients over a 35-month period:
• MRI showed bone marrow reconversion in 33.3% of patients.
• Patients with bone marrow reconversion also showed: higher mean haematocrit (HT) values; lower mean nocturnal oxyhaemoglobin saturation; higher percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation (SaO2) <90%; lower nadir; greater neck adiposity and soft-palate lengthening compared with patients without bone marrow reconversion; and haematocrit (HT) was negatively correlated with daytime arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO2) and positively with arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure (PaCO2).