Apnea and snoring: state of the art and future directions

This review is intended to discuss the newer aspects of sleep apnea, and particularly where the new advances are likely to take place in the current millennium. The topics reviewed include epidemiology and clinical features of sleep apnea and snoring, adverse health consequences of sleep-disordered breathing, upper airway resistance syndrome, and treatment. Most of the work reviewed in these areas has been published since the year 2000, although whenever necessary older literature on the topic under discussion is summarized. Based on the accumulated information to date, new advances in the sleep-disordered breathing are likely to occur in the genetics of sleep apnea, identification of cellular mechanisms involved in control of vascular resistance, and pharmacological treatment of sleep apnea directed toward specific target such as pharyngeal muscles.