Sympathetic and catecholaminergic alterations in sleep apnea with particular emphasison children

Abstract

Sleep is involved in the regulation of major organ functions in the human body, disrup-tion of sleep potentially canelicitorgys function. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most prevalent sleep disorder of breathing in adults children, its manifestations reflect the interactions between intermittent hypoxia, intermittent hypercapnia, increasedintra horacic pressures wings, sleep fragmentation, as elicited by the episodic changes in upper airway resistance during sleep. The sympathetic nervous system is an importan tmodulator of the cardiovascular, immune, endocrin emetabolic systems, alter-ations in autonomic activity may lead to metabolic imbalance and organ dysfunction .Here we revie whow OSA and its constitutive components can lead to perturbation of the auto-nomic nervous system in general, to altered regulation of catecholamines, both of which then playing an important role in some of the mechanisms underlying OSA-induced morbidities. © 2012 Hakim, Gozal and Kheirandish-Gozal.