The prevalence and awareness of sleep apnea in patients suffering chronic pain: an assessment using the STOP-Bang sleep apnea questionnaire.

Purpose: Some patient subsets are at higher risk of sleep apnea, including patients with chronic pain. However, it is unclear whether patients and their caregivers are aware of the possibly increased risk of sleep apnea in this population. Chronic pain is often treated with opioids which may decrease both the central respiratory drive and the patency of the upper airway, potentially contributing to this sleep disorder. Using a self-reporting questionnaire approach in the chronic pain population, this study surveyed patient and caregiver awareness surrounding the risk of sleep apnea. In addition, we looked at the influence of opioid therapy on the prevalence of sleep apnea. Participants and methods: Consecutive patients presenting to a pain clinic were invited to participate anonymously in a survey that included the STOP-Bang sleep apnea questionnaire, which assesses patients\u27 knowledge, testing, diagnosis, or treatment of sleep apnea and whether their caregivers had discussed with them their increased risk of sleep apnea and opioid use. Results: Among 305 participating patients, 58.2% (n=173) screened positive for sleep apnea. Among the 202 patients on opioid therapy, 59.2% (116/202) were STOP-Bang positive (score ≥3). However, only 37.5% (n=72/173) of these patients had discussed their risk of sleep apnea with a caregiver and only 30.7% (n=59) underwent testing. Against expectation, opioids did not increase the prevalence of sleep apnea in our study population. Conclusion: Chronic pain patients had a high risk of sleep apnea, regardless of opioid prescription. Most patients were unaware of their increased risk and denied undergoing the necessary testing. Greater attention to screening, testing, and education for sleep apnea needs to be paid in chronic pain patients, especially given the potentially dangerous ramifications of opioid-induced sleep apnea

Measurement of the properties of a Higgs boson in the four-lepton final state

The properties of a Higgs boson candidate are measured in the $H\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay channel, with $\ell =e$, $\mu$, using data from $pp$ collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.1\text{}\text{}{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ at the center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=7\text{}\text{}\mathrm{TeV}$ and $19.7\text{}\text{}{\mathrm{fb}}^{-\text{1}}$ at $\sqrt{s}=8\text{}\text{}\mathrm{TeV}$, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. The new boson is observed as a narrow resonance with a local significance of 6.8 standard deviations, a measured mass of $125.6±0.4\left(\text{stat}\right)±0.2\left(\text{syst}\right)\text{}\text{}\mathrm{GeV}$, and a total width $\le 3.4\text{}\text{}\mathrm{GeV}$ at the 95% confidence level. The production cross section of the new boson times its branching fraction to four leptons is measured to be ${0.93}_{-0.23}^{+0.26}{\left(\text{stat}\right)}_{-0.09}^{+0.13}\left(\text{syst}\right)$ times that predicted by the standard model. Its spin-parity properties are found to be consistent with the expectations for the standard-model Higgs boson. The hypotheses of a pseudoscalar and all tested spin-1 boson hypotheses are excluded at the 99% confidence level or higher. All tested spin-2 boson hypotheses are excluded at the 95% confidence level or higher