Study Links Sleep Apnea With Hard-to-Diagnose Eye Disorders

Scientists in the UK have found that the condition known as floppy eyelid syndrome (FES) is strongly linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

The finding implies that when doctors see FES in a patient, they should also look for OSA, and vice-versa.

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Study's lead author Daniel G. Ezra, MRCOphth, of Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, England, and his colleagues found the strong OSA-FES association in a case-controlled study of 102 patients tracked between 1995 and 2008; 102 matched controls were also tracked.

"About one-third (32 of 102) FES patients in our study also had OSA. The significant association of the two disorders was evident even when we considered and controlled for patients' body-mass index (BMI, an indicator of whether obesity was a factor). FES is often considered a disease of overweight, middle-aged men, but our study did not find a patient cluster based on age, gender or BMI," Dr. Ezra said.

People with FES have rubbery-textured upper eyelids that may easily flip up during sleep, exposing the "whites of the eyes," which can lead to dry, irritated eyes and/or discharge.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the tissue in the back of the throat collapses completely blocking the airway. Obstructive sleep apnea is treated using continuous positive airway pressure.

The Moorfields research and other studies suggest that central nervous system arousal may be impaired in OAS suffers, so they do not wake up as people normally do when breathing slows or stops, or when the eyelid is subjected to extreme stress. People with OSA often preferentially sleep on one side, which could result in intense, repeated pressure on the eyelid on that side of the face.

A combination of these factors may contribute to or cause FES. The Moorfield report notes that FES resolved in an OSA patient who was treated with a continuous positive airway pressure mask.

Sleeping Disorders
How many times have you stayed awake in the dead of the night counting sheep? If it is fairly often then you could be suffering from a sleep disorder!

Also, the Moorfields study confirms earlier findings that FES is associated with keratoconus, in which the cornea thins out and becomes cone-shaped.

In a separate study, Dr. Ezra and colleagues followed 78 FES patients who had had been treated surgically for FES at Moorfields Eye Hospital within a 13 year period that began in 1995.

About Sleep Disorder
Sleep disorders can either be having difficulty in getting sleep or dozing off at inappropriate time.

Of the surgical methods used, better outcomes resulted for the procedures known as medial and lateral canthal placation, and upper lid lateral tarsal strip.

But outcomes for all procedures were less favourable than reported in earlier studies; the Moorfields study attributes this difference to their study's longer follow-up period.

The study has been published in April's Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Source-ANI
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