Louise O'Brien
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Some children have weak muscle tone in the throat. This happens in cerebral palsy, Down syndrome (Trisomy 21), brain injury from lack of oxygen, and neuromuscular disorders.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
obstructive sleep apnea
pediatric sleep apnea
hypotonia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- 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.
- Optimize the protocols for inserting the ssNPA stent and for keeping patients using it nightly, in preparation for a larger trial.
- Assess the ssNPA stent's effect on obstructive sleep apnea in a larger patient group sized for statistically reliable results, using overnight polysomnography (PSG) sleep studies and quality-of-life measures.
More about the research
In these children the airway can collapse at several points during sleep. The result is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): repeated episodes of blocked breathing that wake the child or drop blood oxygen. OSA affects about 1–5% of children in general, but it is far more common and more severe in these groups. In one series of children with low muscle tone who had sleep studies, 25% had moderate OSA and 56.3% had severe OSA. Current treatments often fall short, and little is known about how well they work over time.
Why it matters
Children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, neuromuscular disorders and other low-muscle-tone conditions often have severe sleep apnea that surgery and mask-based breathing support do not fully treat. A well-tolerated nasal airway stent could offer these children a non-surgical option. It might help some families avoid tracheostomy and the care burden, risks and costs that come with it.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Erin Kirkham
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Compare mean drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) airway obstruction scores in children randomized to sedation with propofol versus dexmedetomidine, testing whether propofol exaggerates airway collapse.
Devin L Brown
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research
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.
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.
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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