TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1995//
TI  - Vigilance and automobile accidents in patients with sleep apnea or narcolepsy
JO  - Chest
A1  - Suratt, P.
A1  - Buckner, J.
A1  - Fabrizio, M.
A1  - Guchu, R.
A1  - Unverzagt, M.
A1  - Findley, L.
SP  - 619
EP  - 624
VL  - 108
IS  - 3
N2  - Patients with obstructive sleep apnea or narcolepsy report difficulty remaining alert and attentive. To detect impaired vigilance, we designed Steer Clear, a computer program simulating a long and monotonous highway drive that presents 780 obstacles in 30 min. Sixty-two patients with sleep apnea hit a higher percentage of obstacles (4.3 +/- 0.6% [SEM]) than 12 age- and sex-matched subjects without sleep apnea (1.4 +/- 0.3%; p < 0.05) and 10 age- and sex-matched volunteers (1.2 +/- 0.3%; p < 0.05). Ten patients with untreated narcolepsy hit a higher percentage of obstacles while performing on Steer Clear (7.7 +/- 3.2%) than 10 age- and sex-matched subjects without narcolepsy (1.2 +/- 0.3%; p < 0.05). Poor performance on Steer Clear was associated with a higher auto accident rate in the patients with sleep apnea or narcolepsy (p < 0.01). Twenty-one patients who performed normally on Steer Clear had 1 accident in 5 years (0.05 accident/driver/5 yr), and in none of these accidents were they at fault as drivers. Twenty-five patients who performed poorly on Steer Clear had 5 auto accidents in 5 years (0.20 accident/driver/5 yr), and in 20% of these accidents they were at fault as drivers. Twenty-one patients who performed very poorly on Steer Clear had 8 auto accidents in 5 years (0.38 accident/driver/5 yr), and in 38% of these accidents they were at fault as drivers. These 21 patients who performed very poorly on Steer Clear (hitting > 4.5% of obstacles) had a significantly higher auto accident rate than the patients who performed normally (hitting < 1.8%). We conclude: (1) Patients with sleep apnea or narcolepsy performed more poorly on a test of vigilance, Steer Clear, than did control subjects; (2) Impaired vigilance as measured by Steer Clear is associated with a high automobile accident rate in patients with either sleep apnea or narcolepsy.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0012-3692
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -