Sleep apnoea syndrome today: much done, more to do.

Sleep apnoea syndrome represents something of a paradox in clinical medicine. On the one hand, the clinical disorder has been recognised only in recent decades although the sleeping characteristics of obstructive apnoea have been recognised in the medical and classical literature for centuries. These are clearly described in a nineteenth century paper by Broadbent [1]: ` There will be perfect silence through two, three, or four respiratory periods in which there are ineffectual chest movements; ®nally air enters with a loud snort, after which there are several compensatory deep inspirations.'' On the other hand, obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is now recognised to be a very common clinical condition with prevalence ®gures ranging up to at least four percent depending on the diagnostic criteria used [2±4], which establishes OSAS as second only to asthma in the prevalence league table of chronic respiratory disorders. This issue of Sleep Medicine Reviews addresses several key aspects of the disorder.

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