Great Site for the Autism Industry Skeptic

I am reposting this one since it contains a link for labs performing tests with "NON- STANDARD" techniques

What does this mean? Diagnostic tests are performed using validated and standardized techniques. As a result, you get similar results in different labs.

Would you build a bridge with non-standard techniques? Would you fly in plane fixed with non-standard techinique?

Why would you treat a child based on such methods?

Great Site for the Autism Skeptic - This is a great one stop shop for rational inquiry.

http://www.autism-watch.org/

CHILDHOOD SLEEP APNEA LINKED TO BRAIN DAMAGE, LOWER IQ

---“A Wake-Up Call” for Parents and Pediatricians--

In what is believed to be the first study showing neural changes in the brains of children with serious, untreated sleep apnea, Johns Hopkins researchers conclude that children with the disorder appear to suffer damage in two brain structures tied to learning ability.

Writing in the Aug. 22 issue of the global online journal Public Library of Science Medicine, the Hopkins investigators say they compared 19 children with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to 12 children without the disorder. Using a special type of MRI, researchers identified changes to the hippocampus and the right frontal cortex. Next, using IQ tests and other standardized performance tests that measure verbal performance, memory and executive function, researchers were able to link the changes in the two brain structures to deficits in neuropsychological performance.

The hippocampus, a structure in the temporal lobe, is vital to learning and memory storage, while the right frontal cortex governs higher-level thinking, such as accessing old memories and using them in new situations.

“This should be a wake-up call to both parents and doctors that undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea might hurt children’s brains,” says lead author Ann Halbower, M.D., a lung specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. “This is truly concerning because we saw changes that suggest brain injury in areas of the brain that house critical cognitive functions, such as attention, learning and working memory.”

Link to article http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030301

Site - http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/08_21_06.html

Snoring and Sleep apnea, is it so inflammatory?

From Dr. Susarla....

Snoring and Sleep apnea, is it so inflammatory?

A recent article in the journal Chest summarizes the association of breathing problems during sleep with multiple other medical conditions in children, raising concerns about how dangerous snoring may be.

Excerpted below: Among the many articles on childhood sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in the last several years, there is a recurring theme: an array of comorbidities. Whether the disorder is defined as habitual snoring, upper airway resistance syndrome, or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), studies have consistently linked SDB in children with seemingly unrelated symptoms of neuropsychologic deficits, obesity, cardiovascular abnormalities, parasomnias, and inflammation.

In addition, there appears to be a genetic association for childhood SDB. In the current issue of CHEST (see page 519), Li and colleagues1 have performed a large-scale population survey of symptom clusters and have demonstrated that all of these comorbid symptoms of SDB are increased in a population of children with habitual snoring. Their study in > 6,000 children aged 5 to 14 years with habitual snoring suggests an association of SDB with genetic influences, BMI, neuropsychologic problems, and inflammation, including recent upper-respiratory infection, allergic rhinitis, tonsillitis, and sinusitis. Do these clinical features relate to a single mechanism?

Chest September 2010 138:469-471
http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/138/3/469.full