Neurological aspects of some sleep disorders

My aim is to examine the relation between some sleep disorders and neurological diseases; to analyse their mutual interactions in order to achieve new practical data for clinical use. In the theoretical part I summarise some main points of sleep physiology concentrating on the associations of sleep regulation and neurological diseases. In my examinations, besides clinical methods, the most important tools used are sleep analyses performed by polysomnography and MESAM IV as well as brain imaging methods. To assess clinical state of my stroke patients I utilised NIH Stroke Scale. I found pathological sleep apnoea frequency in more than half of the patients in any type (bleeding/infarction) of acute stroke. In a prospective study, sleep apnoea parameters remain permanent during 3 months in the ischaemic group; on the other hand, sleep apnoea improves during follow up after brain haemorrhages. I showed pathological sleep apnoea frequency in myasthenia gravis among male patients without daytime respiration complaint. I looked for the link between the mechanism of the sleep disorder and the underlying organic lesion in two cases. In this analyses I took into account the function of the affected structure in sleep regulation. I found a basal forebrain tumour, affecting sleep regulating centres underlying severe insomnia and I suggest a neuro-vascular compression of the lateral preoptic area of the hypothalamus being the reason of sleep related painful erection, a parasomnia of unknown origin.