Concurrent variations of cerebral blood flow and arterial blood pressure in simulated sleep apnea

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is one of the most common sleep disordered breathing which affects about 15 % of US adult population. OSA is considered to be an important risk factor for the development of cardiac dysfunction and stroke. In this paper, we present the initial results of our investigation of the relationship between arterial blood pressure and cerebral blood flow velocity in simulated apnea. Sixteen healthy subjects (9 male, 7 female) of 29±4.89 yrs age and body mass index of 24.07±4.84 kg/m² participated in the study. Our findings indicate that cerebral blood flow velocity variations has a relatively high correlation to changes in blood pressure during simulated apnea (r=0.74 ±0.06), suggesting that cerebral autoregulation may not compensate for the pressure changes during apnea.