Re: Sleep Apnea or Something Else?

Posted By CCF neuro MD MM on January 29, 1999 at 17:30:09:

In Reply to: Sleep Apnea or Something Else? posted by Susan on January 29, 1999 at 13:10:22:






Hi.  My husband has been having 'episodes' for the past year or so, where he
becomes disoriented, unsteady on his feet, slurrs his speech, and generally
acts as though he is drunk - but he's not drinkng anything or taking any
drugs.  After the episode, he sleeps for anywhere from 15 minutes to
several hours.  When he wakes up, he is fine, although he often remembers
little to nothing of the episode.  When the episode happens, he is coherent, but
can not recognize that his voice is slurred, or any of the other symptoms.
Finally, (after much persuading) he's gone to his doctor for evaluation.  
He was diagnosed with high blood pressure (160/100), and put on medication for
that.  He went to a nuerologist who gave him a full exam, and believes that
the episodes are in response to sleep apnea, since he snores badly, and often
stops breathing (or at least that's how it sounds to me late at night!).
He is scheduled to go into the hospital to the sleep lab for analysis now.  
When I researched sleep apnea, I found lots of info on what causes it, but
I didn't see symptoms like this.  Does this sound like a reasonablediagnosis?
His regular doctor had told us the Neurologist would probably order an MRA,
but she didn't - just the sleep lab analysis.  Any information you could provide
would really help!  Thanks so much for your time!!!



=
your husband may well be suffering from sleep apnea but this is certainly
not the full story.
The episodes you mention while awake cannot be accounted for by a reaction
to sleep apnea in my opinion.
Episodic problems like this can be due to seizures, since the sleep study
is closely related to the EEG test it would be a good idea to have a full
EEg study done at the same time as the sleep study.
This would permit a more thouough evaluation of these episodes as, even if
sleep apnea is proven it will not explain these episodes fully.