Asthma and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. IRAS Version 5.2.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Asthma and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, The Association, Physiological Interrelation and Impact of Therapy
IRAS ID
170309
Contact name
Graham Burns
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Asthma is a common condition of variable airway obstruction due to inflammation, often caused by certain triggers. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a condition in which the airway at the back of the throat is obstructed during sleep, causing sufferers to snore and stop breathing. There are frequent awakenings and they never achieve a full night of good sleep. Severe sleepiness can impact enormously on their quality of life.
Like asthma, OSA is also a global problem. It is on the rise in the developed world as levels of obesity (the major risk factor for the condition) increase.
Although both asthma and OSA are common and it would be inevitable that that some patients will have both conditions, the overlap between the two seems to be more that would be expected by chance alone. This finding suggests there may be some link, possibly causative, between the two.This project aims to test various postulated physiological links between the two conditions.
Patients will be recruited directly from designated consultant Respiratory and Sleep Clinics and provided with an information leaflet.There will be four groups of participant: patients with OSA and asthma, asthma alone, OSA alone and healthy people with neither condition (‘control subjects’)
Patients would receive appropriate standard treatment for their particular condition: Appropriate inhaled medication for asthma, continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) delivered via a fitted mask over the nose at night for patients with OSA. Subjects will also undergo a number of breathing tests and complete a questionnaire about symptoms. These investigations will be performed at the time they are recruited to the study. For patients in whom it is clinically indicated (patients with OSA, with or without asthma) there will be a one month period of treatment with home CPAP. For these patients the breathing tests and questionnaires will be repeated after that treatment period.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0021
Date of REC Opinion
22 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion