X-ray imaging technology first allowed sleep researchers to noninvasively view discrete anatomical differences such as a narrowed oropharynx in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) sufferers that could result in abnormal sleep. However, x-ray imaging has limitations. Images can give only a 2D shadowy silhouette-like view of organs within the body; distinct features of individual organs are not apparent; some organs can be seen only if the person is imaged from a certain position, and even this may give limited information; and an image cannot reveal neural or metabolic activity occurring within an organ.

More recently developed imaging technologies are counteracting these limitations. CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, MEG, and LORETA are imaging technologies that now allow scientists to have a 3D view of organs within the body; to see individual organs distinctly; and to view an organ’s metabolic activity. These expanded capabilities are now enhancing diagnosis, treatment, and research for a wide variety of sleep disorders. Whether it’s sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, or sleep deprivation, imaging technology is at the forefront. Here is a look at how various modalities are making a difference in sleep medicine.

Computed Tomography

According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 18 million American adults have OSA—a chronic and sometimes deadly disorder. But diagnosing the condition is not always easy. Today in sleep medicine, CT technology plays a role in the diagnosis and treatment of OSA by clearly showing which specific area in the oropharynx—the soft palate, epiglottis, palatine tonsils, or base of the tongue—is the source of airway blockage during OSA episodes.

Knowing this subtle difference helps physicians decide the best approach to OSA surgery. This in turn can enhance one’s response to OSA surgeries such as uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (a surgery that widens the upper airway by removing excess fatty tissue, the tonsils, and uvula), lateral pharyngoplasty (a surgery that shortens certain pharyngeal muscles to prevent the lateral inward collapse of the upper airway), palatal stiffening (a surgery in which slender implants are inserted into the soft palate to stiffen it and prevent its collapse into the upper airway), or tongue reduction (a procedure that shrinks discrete portions of the tongue base to prevent its blocking the airway).

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

MRI has long been used to diagnose a wide variety of brain disorders.1* But it is a variation on MRI—functional MRI (fMRI)—that is making a greater impact in the field of sleep medicine. It differs from conventional MRI in that it creates images by utilizing the difference in magnetic resonance between two molecules found in blood: deoxyhemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin. Deoxyhemoglobin (a hemoglobin molecule that has lost oxygen atoms) has a smaller magnetic resonance than oxyhemoglobin (a hemoglobin molecule that contains oxygen molecules). An fMRI scanner creates images much more quickly than conventional MRI, since the amounts of deoxyhemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin are always fluctuating in response to a tissue’s changing oxygen needs. This feature makes fMRI ideal for viewing neural activation in the brain as reflected by blood flow changes.

Sleep researchers have recently begun using fMRI to learn how areas in the brain involved in cognitive functions are impacted by sleep deprivation. For example, researchers at the Stanford Sleep Clinic and Center for Human Sleep Research in San Diego are currently using fMRI to study the effect of long-term continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on various aspects of memory. Olga Prilipko, MD, one of the investigators of the Stanford study, explains, “Our study is to view how brain activation changes before and after CPAP treatment. We want to know: Does CPAP change how the brain is activated in response to the memory task?” Of particular interest is learning how CPAP treatment affects activation of brain areas involved in memory encoding and working memory and determining if any change in these cognitive functions correlate to brain activation changes after CPAP treatment.

Researchers are currently using fMRI to study the effect of long-term continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on various aspects of memory.

A similar fMRI study by Robert J. Thomas and coworkers2 that investigated the impact of OSA and OSA treatment on working memory found that OSA subjects had decreased activation in the prefrontal and parietal regions when performing memory tasks before bilevel or continuous positive airway pressure (BPAP/CPAP) treatment. The parietal region recovered some activation after treatment, but the prefrontal region did not. From this, Thomas et al concluded that cognitive dysfunctions in OSA sufferers may not be a consequence of sleep deprivation resulting from the disorder but may be a consequence of an underlying impairment of activation of certain areas involved in cognition.

fMRI also has been used to investigate brain activation in other sleep disorders. For example, research studies have found that the technology may be useful in determining one’s vulnerability to sleep deprivation,3 in understanding residual sleepiness in treated narcoleptics,4 and in understanding the impaired neural activation resulting in Cheyne-Stokes respiration.5

Positron Emission Tomography

PET forms images by utilizing radioactivity. The unstable nucleus of an isotope readily disintegrates and may in the process emit positrons, photons, gamma rays, or x-rays.

A PET study involves two steps. First, an isotope is incorporated into a molecule such as glucose or water. The radioactive substance is then injected into a patient. The isotope gives off positrons as the radioactive substance spreads throughout body tissues. When a positron strikes an electron within body tissues, the encounter creates two gamma rays. Areas where high metabolism is occurring will use more of the radioactive substance and therefore will have higher gamma radiation. In the second step of a PET study, a person is slowly inserted on a platform through the cylindrical opening in the center of the PET scanner. The PET scanner contains a ring that is an array of detectors that record gamma radiation emitted by the person. The detector array sends the information to a computer. The computer generates a 2D axial slice of the area being studied that shows areas of high gamma radiation (that is, a “hot spot,” indicating a high rate of metabolism) and low gamma radiation (indicating less metabolic activity). The image may be color-coded with red, which typically represent areas of high metabolic activity; green, neutral activity; and blue, low activity. Because a PET image provides a metabolic rather than an anatomic depiction of the body, a CT or MRI scan is sometimes done simultaneously with a PET scan and the two images are overlayed to give a more anatomic rendering of metabolic activity.

PET is used in sleep medicine research to view neural activity in the brain. However, because of the time involved in its two-step process, PET cannot record quickly-occurring neural activity, as can fMRI. PET is used instead to view longer-lasting activity in the brain such as regional activity throughout a sleep period,6 brain activation in restless leg syndrome and other movement disorders during sleep,7,8 and brain activation after sleep deprivation.9

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography

SPECT also utilizes radioactivity. The isotope used in SPECT releases on disintegration a single high-energy particle—a photon—that has no weight and no electrical charge. SPECT is sometimes used instead of PET since the decay time of the isotope used in SPECT is longer than that used in PET, the isotope is easier to handle, and SPECT equipment is more readily available.

In sleep medicine research, SPECT has been used to examine brain activation in narcoleptics,10 to investigate impaired sleep in neurological disorders,11 and to investigate the effect of sleep deprivation in depressed people.12 Currently, some studies verify what is already known; for example, decreased activation of the hypocretin system in narcoleptics, while other studies reveal new aspects of sleep disorders, including findings that depressed people who have increased activation of some limbic structures respond more readily to sleep deprivation with improved mood.

Magnetoencephalography

MEG utilizes the magnetic qualities associated with electrical activity. Electrical activity traveling in one direction produces a magnetic field that surrounds the axis of the current. In the brain, a magnetic field can exist around a neuron since its electrical activity flows in one direction from the dendrite, through the cell body, and finally through the axon.

In an MEG study, a person wears a special helmet that contains an array of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs, a type of magnetometer) that collect magnetic signals from various points around the head. The SQUIDs relay the information to a computer that produces an image that shows the magnetic field pattern of the cortex. An MEG image uses colorization to represent activity of the electromagnetic fields typically using red to represent areas of high electromagnetic activity (increased neural activity) and blue to represent low electromagnetic activity (decreased neural activity). An MEG magnetic field pattern can be overlayed with images produced by fMRI to give a 3D anatomical rendering of electromagnetic activity of the brain.

Sleep researchers have used MEG to investigate various aspects of sleep such as waves in the sub-delta range (0.1 ? 0.9 Hertz),13 pain perception during sleep,14,15 and changes in electromagnetic activity with mental tasks.16 Results of these studies are beginning to help scientists understand the connection between the voluntary and autonomic functions, understand how the brain processes pain, and understand how the brain is activated by different kinds of tasks.

Low Resonance Electromagnetic Tomography

LORETA produces tomographic images of electromagnetic activity of the brain. Whereas MEG looks at electromagnetic activity occurring at the cortex of the brain, LORETA uses cortical electromagnetic activity to estimate where within the brain the activity is originating.

In an MEG study, a person wears a cap that contains sensors that collect electromagnetic signals. Each sensor relays its information to a computer that uses the information to create a source map of electromagnetic activity. Since the source of electromagnetic activity cannot be pinpointed but only approximated to a particular area, the resulting map of electromagnetic activity is said to have a low resolution. An MRI scan can be used in conjunction with a LORETA electromagnetic source map to give 3D anatomic rendering of the electromagnetic activity of the brain.

LORETA is being used in sleep medicine research to study the phenomenon of cyclic alternating pattern17 (CAP, transient arousals that are interspersed in the tonic activity of non-rapid eye movement sleep), to study electromagnetic activation differences between insomniac and noninsomniac subjects,18 to study the effect of drug therapy on vigilance in postmenopausal women,19,20 to study the effect of drug treatment in narcoleptics,21 and to analyze various aspects of sleep stages such as spindling.22 Such studies are revealing differences in response to medication and verifying brain-activation changes that occur in sleep disorders such as insomnia and narcolepsy.

Future sleep research studies using CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, MEG, and LORETA technologies may soon overturn long-held ideas about what constitutes “normal” sleep. Currently, these imaging technologies are giving sleep researchers new avenues to investigate concerning sleep.


Regina Patrick, RPSGT, is a contributing writer for Medical Imaging. For more information, contact .

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*Clete Kushida, MD, PhD, is the principal investigator of the Stanford study, which is part of a multicenter study—Airway Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Apnea Positive Pressure Long-Term Efficacy Study. Study ID number: 150; U01 HL068060. January 9, 2003. Or it can be accessed online at: clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00051363; last accessed on June 28, 2007. Funded by the NIH. The Stanford study is still open to new subjects. Interested individuals need to live in the Bay Area and be 30 to 50 years old. Individuals can leave their name and phone number with Olga Prilipko, MD, at (650) 723?7780 or contact the study at .