Characteristics of maintenance of wakefulness test in drug-naïve patients with narcolepsy type 1 and type 2, and relationship with other measures of sleepiness

Abstract

Study Objectives We aimed to describe the characteristics of standard maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT), outside of clinical trials, in a sample of drug-naïve patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) and type 2 (NT2). Methods Consecutive drug-naïve patients with narcolepsy underwent two days of continuous PSG recording, the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), then night-PSG and, on the following day, MWT. MWT results were correlated with MSLT and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). Patients in the two lower tertiles of MWT mean sleep latency (mSL) were compared to those in the upper tertile. Results Seventy-eight NT1 (30.6±11.4 years, 35 males) and 19 NT2 (31.0±9.9 years, 12 males) were included. MWT results showed a bimodal distribution with a large peak with reduced mSL and a small peak with values toward 40 min. MWT mSL was lower in NT1 than in NT2 (10.7±10.8 min vs 23.9±11.5 min, p