Devin L Brown
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research
About three in four people who have a stroke also have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). In OSA, the upper airway repeatedly collapses during sleep and interrupts breathing.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
- Topics
stroke
transient ischemic attack
obstructive sleep apnea
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Determine which obstructive sleep apnea endotypes, such as airway collapsibility, loop gain and arousal threshold, drive sleep apnea after stroke, and how they differ by ethnicity and from stroke-free participants, using polysomnography in the BASIC study.
- Relate endotypic profiles to the improvement in sleep apnea severity often seen early after stroke, to identify which patients need longer-term treatment or repeat testing.
- Build a model that predicts post-stroke sleep apnea endotypes from clinical and phenotypic data, including facial morphometric measures, without overnight polysomnography.
- Test in a phase III randomized trial whether CPAP after ischemic stroke or high-risk TIA prevents recurrent stroke, acute coronary syndrome and death at 6 months.
- Determine whether early CPAP treatment improves stroke recovery at 3 months, using portable sleep apnea testing, auto-adjusting CPAP and remote nightly adherence monitoring.
More about the research
OSA after stroke is linked to worse recovery, repeat strokes and death, yet it can be treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a mask that keeps the airway open. These projects ask whether treating OSA improves stroke outcomes, and why OSA arises after stroke, so that treatment can be matched to each patient.
Why it matters
Stroke patients, and Mexican Americans in particular, who carry a heavier burden of stroke and sleep apnea, could benefit from treatment matched to the cause of their sleep apnea instead of one-size-fits-all care. A positive CPAP trial could establish a safe, low-cost treatment to prevent repeat strokes and aid recovery, using simple methods suited to low-resource hospitals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Eric Kezirian
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether tissue-repositioning soft palate surgery reduces upper airway collapsibility in people with obstructive sleep apnea, and whether the drop is larger when blockage is limited to the palate on drug-induced sleep endoscopy and airflow-shape analysis.
Lichuan Ye
Northeastern University, MA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Refine OurSleepKit, a couple-focused mobile health app for obstructive sleep apnea, through an iterative participatory design process using qualitative methods with patients and their partners.
Louise O'Brien
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether an enhanced self-supported nasopharyngeal airway (ssNPA), a nasal stent that keeps the throat open, is acceptable to and tolerated by children with hypotonic upper airway obstruction and sleep apnea.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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