Biomedical subjects

L Cambron

Publications and source records attributed to L Cambron.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

[The sleep obstructive apnea and hypopnea syndromes].

Since two decades, sleep breathing disorders are more wisely recognized by the Belgian medical community. Among these, the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSA) is the best known but its frontiers with others syndromes such as the Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS), the Central Sleep Apnea Syndrome (CSAS) or the Overlap Syndrome are still matter of discussion. Its causes are plurifactorial, and many recent publications draw the attention to its long term effects in the cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric fields. This article summarizes the present definitions and features associated with OSA, from clinical and neurophysiological perspectives, and the different consequences to which untreated or underdiagnosed patients are exposed.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗

PubMed2002

[Narcolepsy-cataplexy].

The diagnosis of narcolepsy-cataplexy is based on three axes: 1) the medical history is strongly suggestive when diurnal sleep attacks (narcolepsy) and drop attacks (cataplexy) are reported or observed; 2) the polysomnography is mandatory and shows nocturnal and diurnal (multiple sleep latency test) REM sleep onsets; 3) HLA typing, practically helps to exclude the diagnosis when HLA DR15-DQB1*0602 is not present. New pathogenetic hypotheses have been proposed, mostly based the absence of hypocretin in narcoleptic cerebrospinal fluid. This neurotransmitter was previously known exclusively by its involvement in alimentary behaviours. The new therapies remain symptomatic, but they are powerful to prevent somnolence, daytime sleepiness, cataplexy and insomnia associated with this syndrome.

Carrier Proteins↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[The general practitioner and insomnia].

A complaint of insomnia has to be analysed, and differentiated from hypochondria and, overall, from hypersomnia. Once confirmed and assessed as acute or chronic, it is often considered a disorder of hyperarousal, that is an imbalance between a central nervous system activating and a central nervous system inhibiting system with subcontinuous overflow from the former. An acute insomnia is less than one month of duration. As a disease, insomnia has to be categorized as a secondary or a primary disorder. Thereafter, it remains to assess the extent of social, psychological and economical interactions. These factors intervene as consequences or perpetuating factors. The capacity to assess the whole situation is really the great strength of the general practitioner who, more than anybody else, is on home ground. Laboratory findings and specialist examination come only as supporting evidence for causal links. A polysomnography realized in a sleep disorder center provides data reinforcing or correcting the diagnosis. From a sound assessment of the disease, the treatment has to be deduced by following a rigorous reasoning, devoid of guilty feelings as they are suggested to patients by mass-media talking, as well as freed from fashionable non medical practices. Today, we know that chronic insomnia is a disease with potential severe consequences and that it does not heal spontaneously.

Acute Disease↗