Concurrent presentation of palatal myoclonus and sleep apnea: A polysomnographic assessment

This is approximately five seconds of the patient’s polysomnography featuring the breathing channels. The patient is in REM sleep and oxygen saturation (not shown) is 93%. The inflections on the chin EMG show the palatal myoclonus; this shows how the patient is snoring on the nasal pressure signal (high frequency inflections) and that when there is a myoclonus burst, the snore is abbreviated. Chin EMG, genioglossus electromyography; nasal pressure, airflow as measured by nasal cannula pressure transducer; thermistor, airflow as measured by nasal–oral thermistor; chest effort; respiratory effort in chest as measured by respiratory inductive plethsmography; Abd effort, respiratory effort in abdomen as measured by respiratory inductive plethsmography.

This is a 30s epoch of the patient’s polysomnography. The patient is in REM sleep and the arrows show that despite the continued presence of the palatal myoclonus, an obstructive apnea persists until an arousal. Chin EMG, genioglossus electromyography; nasal pressure, airflow as measured by nasal cannula pressure transducer; thermistor; airflow as measured by nasal–oral thermistor; chest effort; respiratory effort in chest as measured by respiratory inductive plethsmography; Abd effort, respiratory effort in abdomen as measured by respiratory inductive plethsmography; oximeter; oxygen saturation as measured by pulse oximetry.