Cataplexy test4/29/2023 ![]() ![]() It’s very funny how not all the time when I take a nap do I wake up refreshed, but that’s what these very brief episodes-you say, “Maybe we better investigate that,” then you do these fancy MSLTs and sleep EEGs.ĭebra Stultz, MD: Those are good points about the history, about the naps being refreshing and how quickly they can fall asleep. The other thing is they often wake up refreshed. Does Grandpa fall asleep or does Mom fall asleep at the light? A lot of us do, but there are hints that people are sleeping too much, and they go rapidly into sleep. ![]() If you’re at a traffic signal and that’s another way to say it, if you’re at a red light and you fall asleep, you’d better look into this a little. Because if they have some of these problems, then they figure out to stop driving. Stephen Stahl, MD, PhD: You don’t think these are often confirmatory? The way you get somebody to go through the hassle and expense of getting the test is different, which is to say that they fall asleep as a passenger in a car. But by the strictest definition of narcolepsy, you must have 2 sleep-onset REM periods during the MSLT or you could have 1 in the MSLT and 1 in the PSG. We know we can use even an early REM sleep onset latency in their overnight setting, the PSG. To get the diagnosis, we do an overnight sleep study followed by MSLT, multiple sleep latency test, which is having the patient try to go to sleep 4 times every 2 hours, and we measure how quickly they go to sleep and what kind of sleep they have, and how quickly they get into REM sleep if they have REM sleep at all. But sleep-onset REM, excessive daytime sleepiness, and latency to go to sleep very fast are all a diagnosis of narcolepsy.ĭebra Stultz, MD: Right. Some sleep deprivation can cause that as well it’s not 100%. That’s highly suspicious that you have narcolepsy. Stephen Stahl, MD, PhD: However, if you have an EEG on at the same time, it’s not normal to go to sleep right into REM. There are a number of causes of excessive daytime sleepiness other than narcolepsy, but that diagnosis EDS, excessive daytime sleepiness. If it’s very quickly, then that’s not normal. You can measure the latency to fall asleep. Put somebody in a room that’s dark and quiet and see how long it takes them to fall asleep. That’s very much how I diagnose narcolepsy. They may or may not have excessive daytime sleepiness. If you’re very observant, you’ll see this -all these heads breaking down and a lot of people going to sleep. You can take 20 or 30 minutes in the quiet room. If you get on an airplane, you’ll be on the runway and very quiet because you’re ready to take off. I’m not sure I can diagnose narcolepsy, but I can diagnose sleep onset and possibly even sleep-onset REM in an airplane. Stephen Stahl, MD, PhD: Well, there’s the rich man’s way and the poor man’s way. Debra Stultz, MD: How do you diagnose narcolepsy? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |