Research: International Projects

Children With Sleep Disorders

The Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences of the University of Insubria specializes in the research and treatment of children with sleep disordered breathing (SDB). These children present snoring, hyponea during sleep, and in the most severe cases, sleep apneas that may be central or obstructive.

Many of these patients, particularly infants, are monitored during their sleep by means of home monitoring devices which incorporate an acoustic alarm that is activated when their cardiac activity becomes abnormally low or their SpO2 drops below the normal values. A recording device that can show, through computer imaging, if the monitoring has activated a sequence of unfavorable events, then captures the cardiac activity.

Professor J. Carrol directs this exploration of the efficacy of the home monitoring system. When a child presents apneas or hypopneas, their sleeping patterns are altered as are the production of many hormones and cytokines.

Together with Professor Maestroni we have studied the circadian production of melatonin and cortisol in a group of SDB children to study the possible alterations of these patterns, which correlate with the level of alertness and of school performance in these patients.

In cooperation with:
John L. Carroll, MD
Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Physiology
UAMS College of Medicine
Director, Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine
Arkansas Children's Hospital
Little Rock, Arkansas

Georges JM Maestroni, PhD
Head, Center for Experimental Pathology
Cantonal Institute of Pathology
Via In Selva 24, PO Box
6601 Locarno, Switzerland
Tel: +41 91 81 60791
Fax: +41 91 81 60799