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Objective To exam the relationship between snoring and morbidities of multiple systems in children. Study design Children with snoring were enrolled and divided into primary snorer (PS) group and obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) group based on polysomnography. The healthy children served as the control group. The growth parameters, maxillofacial malformations, blood chemistry, electrocardiogram, and echocardiogram were recorded and intelligence testing was performed in the enrolled children who were ≥6 years old. Results The weight and height were similar in the control group (n = 60) and the PS group (n = 63), but lower in the OSAHS group (n = 89; P

The sleep disorder in pregnant women remains unfamiliar to perinatal care providers, resulting in lack of appropriate care. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of sleep disorder-related symptoms in pregnant women and to identify the associated risk factors.Married pregnant women were enrolled from their first trimester and followed up until delivery. Nonpregnant married healthy women were selected as controls. A survey questionnaire was administered to each of them.We successfully performed a survey to 1,993 pregnant women and 598 nonpregnant women. The overall prevalence of sleep disorder-related symptoms in pregnant women was significantly higher than the controls (56.1 vs. 29.9 %, P0.05). There was higher prevalence of snoring (30.2 %), observed sleep apnea (1.1 %), mouth breathing (23.7 %), nocturnal arousal (46.5 %), insomnia (35.1 %), and daytime sleepiness (52.6 %) in pregnant women. There were no significant differences of the prevalence of bruxism (7.0 vs. 6.7 %), sleep talking (8.1 vs. 7.2 %), and sleep walking (0.4 vs. 0.2 %) between the two groups (P0.05). Nocturnal sleep time (8.0 ± 1.3 h) was less in the third trimester compared with the nonpregnant women (8.2 ± 1.1 h) (P0.05). Smoking (OR = 3.39), drinking (OR = 2.40), allergic rhinitis/asthma (OR = 1.71), an obvious difference in neck circumference (OR = 1.11), and waistline (OR = 1.07) changes between the first and third trimesters were the risk factors for sleep disorder-related problems.There is a high prevalence of sleep disorder-related symptoms in pregnant women. Our data may provide a baseline for prevention and treatment of sleep disturbances in pregnant women.

Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) may cause serious morbidities, such as systemic hypertension, diabetes, and cor pulmonale. However, currently no many reports on study of OSAHS in children are available. This study aimed to explore the effects of OSAHS on children's multiple systems.A total of 89 cases of children who came to the Sleep Treatment Center in the authors' hospital from March 2009 to December 2010 with snoring were tested with overnight polysomnography (PSG). They were classified into mild OSAHS group (n = 59, mean age of 5.71, SD = 2.46) and moderate to severe group (n = 30, mean age of 5.30, SD = 2.73) based on the PSG results, and 100 healthy children were selected as the control group (n = 100, mean age of 6 years, SD = 2.98). Data including height, weight, body mass index and blood pressure, peripheral blood routine, blood lipids, glucose and insulin, electrocardiogram and echocardiography were collected. Patients' adenoid face and abnormal occlusion were also recorded. Comparisons of the data were made among those groups.Mild OSAHS and moderate to severe group had significantly higher prevalence of adenoid face (23.7%, 26.7%), and abnormal occlusion (74.6%, 60.0%) than that in control group (0, 40%) (P0.05). There were no significant differences in terms of BMI between the OSAHS group and the control group, but the weight (kg) and height (cm) in the mild OSAHS group (23.3 ± 10.1, 114.9 ± 16.2) and moderate to severe group (21.9 ± 8.4, 110.8 ± 13.3) were lower than those of the control group (31.8 ± 10.1, 136.1 ± 15.1) (all P0.05). Compared with the control group, the level of HDL-C (mmol/L)and insulin (mU/L) in moderate and severe group decreased [(1.20 ± 0.30) vs. (1.40 ± 0.27), 2.79 (0.84 - 16.16) vs. 4.92 (0.76 - 16.80), P0.05], while the LDL-C (mmol/L) increased [(2.61 ± 0.75) vs. (2.32 ± 0.62), P0.05]. The red blood cell counts (× 10(12)/L) and the blood platelet counts (× 10(9)/L) in the mild OSAHS (4.93 ± 0.37, 292.92 ± 75.64) and moderate and severe OSAHS group (5.23 ± 0.22, 292.50 ± 63.05) were significantly higher in contrast to the control group (4.70 ± 0.31, 255.60 ± 69.12) (all P0.05), systolic blood pressure (mmHg) in mild group (98.54 ± 10.44) and moderate to severe group (99.13 ± 19.13) was significantly higher compared to control group (87.88 ± 11.37), and the heart rate (beats/min) in moderate to severe group (94.43 ± 10.64) was higher than those in control group (87.12 ± 16.20) (all P0.05). The mild OSAHS and moderate and severe OSAHS group had decreased right ventricular internal diameter [(14.24 ± 1.64) mm, (13.17 ± 2.07) mm ], increased main pulmonary artery diameter [(17.05 ± 3.33) mm, (16.33 ± 3.14) mm] and the thickness of right ventricular wall [(3.43 ± 0.26) mm, (3.57 ± 0.20) mm] compared to control group [ (16.10 ± 2.96) mm, (14.11 ± 2.52) mm, (3.32 ± 0.25) mm] (all P0.05).OSAHS in children may be associated with craniofacial malformations, and may contribute to slow growth and development, elevated blood viscosity and blood pressure, metabolic abnormalities, and change cardiac structure.

To investigate the distribution characteristics of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of the toll-like receptor 9 gene (TLR9) in Chinese Han children from Zhejiang province, and their associations with asthma susceptibility and phenotypes.A case-control study was conducted. A total of 312 asthmatic children aged between 1.9 and 11.6 and 339 age matched healthy controls were enrolled in this study from April 2007 to November 2008. The -1486 C/T in rs187084 and -1237 C/T in rs5743836 loci of the TLR9 gene were genotyped by direct DNA sequencing of the PCR products. Serum levels of IFN gamma, IL-12 and IL-4 were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Serum levels of total IgE were detected by chemiluminescence, and serum levels of antigen specific IgE antibodies were detected by fluoroenzymeimmunoassay.(1) The -1486 C/T polymorphism was identified in both groups. The genotype frequencies of TT, TC and CC at -1486 C/T were 41.0%, 44.3%, 14.7% in the healthy controls, and 38.8%, 48.4%, 12.8% in the asthmatic children. The -1237 C/T polymorphism was not detected in the population. (2) There were no statistically significant differences in the allele and genotype frequencies at the -1486 C/T locus between the two groups (P;0.05). (3) Serum levels of IFN gamma and IL-4 differed significantly among the three genotypes at the -1486 C/T locus in asthmatic children (P0.01). The CC genotype had the lowest levels of serum IFN gamma and the highest levels of serum IL-4 among the three genotypes. There were no significant differences in these cytokines among the healthy controls (P0.05). No statistical differences of serum IL-12 were found among the three genotypes in the two groups (P0.05). (4) There were no significant differences of total IgE (log-transformed) among the three genotypes in the asthmatic children (P0.05).The -1237 C/T polymorphism of TLR9 gene was not detected in Chinese Han children in this study. The -1486 C/T polymorphism was associated with the levels of serum IFN gamma and IL-4 in children with asthma. However, there were no correlations between the -1486C/T polymorphism and serum IL-12 levels, total IgE levels or asthmatic susceptibility.