Effects of Evening Exercise on Sleep in Healthy Participants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ISSN:0112-1642ISSN:1179-203

No Decrease in Blood Pressure After an Acute Bout of Intermittent Hyperpnea and Hypoxia in Prehypertensive Elderly

Prevalence of hypertension, subjective sleep complaints and snoring increases with age. Worse sleep and snoring, in turn, are independent risk factors to develop hypertension. Both respiratory muscle training (RMT) and intermittent hypoxia (IH) are suggested to have positive effects on these physiological and behavioral variables. This study therefore aimed to test the acute effects of a single bout of RMT, with and without IH, on resting blood pressure (BP) and sleep. Fourteen prehypertensive elderly performed a 60-min session of (a) intermittent voluntary normocapnic hyperpnea (HYP) alone, (b) HYP in combination with IH (HYP&IH) and (c) a sham intervention in randomized order. BP, hemodynamics, heart rate variability (HRV), cardiac baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were assessed before and 15, 30 and 45 min after each intervention. Variables of sleep were assessed with actigraphy, pulse oximetry and with questionnaires during and after the night following each intervention. Neither HYP nor HYP&IH resulted in a decrease in BP. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed no significant interaction effect for systolic BP (p = 0.090), diastolic BP (p = 0.151), HRV parameters, BRS and PWV (all p > 0.095). Fragmentation index was lower after both HYP (−6.5 units) and HYP&IH (−8.4 units) compared to sham, p(ANOVA) = 0.046, although pairwise comparisons reveal no significant differences. There were no other significant effects for the remaining sleep variables. We conclude that one bout of intermittent hyperpnea, alone or in combination with IH, is not effective in lowering blood pressure or improving sleep in prehypertensive elderly.ISSN:1664-042

Phenotypic heterogeneity of growth and psychometric intelligence in Prader-Willi syndrome: Variable expression of a contiguous gene syndrome or parent-child resemblance?

Phenotypic variability in children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) was investigated with respect to variable expression of the contiguous gene syndrome and trait variance. In a prospective study, parent/child resemblance of anthropometric and psychometric measures was analyzed in 22 children with PWS (11 females and 11 males; 18 deletions, 4 uniparental disomy (UPD)) and in a control group (88 females and 88 males). The average child-midparent Z-score difference for height in females was –1.9 and in males –0.9, head circumference –1.7 and –1.0, and body mass index (BMI) 2.3 and 2.7, respectively. Intellectual performance of females and males was, on average, –2.7 and –2.6 below maternal performance. Range and standard deviation were moderately increased for height and head circumference, doubled for BMI, and unchanged for IQ. Parent/child correlations for anthropometric and psychometric measurements in the study group did not significantly differ from those of the control group. Exceptions were higher correlations between mothers and daughters for height (P < 0.05) and BMI (P < 0.01), and lower correlations for head circumference between midparent values and daughters (P < 0.05) than in the control group. In conclusion, parent–child resemblance in growth and intellectual development among children with PWS was found to be comparable to that noted in the normal population, indicating a strong determination by trait variance. Children with PWS differed significantly with respect to a lower trait level and—with the exception of IQ—a larger variability. The latter may indicate a variable expression of the contiguous gene syndrome