ResMed's Study Results For Central Sleep Apnea Hold Promise

 | Apr 11, 2017 04:17AM ET

Medical device company ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD) recently sponsored a study which shows potential treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with untreated central sleep apnea (CSA). According to the study, CSA patients are more responsive toward adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) therapy when they switch from continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.

Notably, OSA is a kind of sleep disorder in which the throat muscles relax, block the airways and stop the flow of breath during sleep. CSA is another sleep disorder in which the brain fails to transmit the ‘breathe’ signal to the muscles that control breathing during sleep.

The analysis compared compliance rates of 198,890 patients using anonymous, aggregated telemonitoring data from a U.S. positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy database. All patients in the analysis received CPAP via ResMed's AirSense 10 or ASV via ResMed's AirCurve 10 devices. In particular, three groups of patients – "CPAP-only," "ASV-only" and Switch" that started on CPAP and switched to ASV – were evaluated.