Sleep Related Breathing Disorders in Children with Epilepsy - A Case Series

The prevalence of sleep related breath disorders (SRBDs) in children affected by epilepsy is debatable. While some authors did not report any difference in the rate of SRBD between children with epilepsy and the healthy population, other authors reported a statistically higher incidence in children with epilepsy. SRBDs affect 0.7-3% of children in the general pediatric population, and the prevalence of SRBD reported in children with epilepsy is 6-80%, including sleep breathing disorders in 20-80% and obstructive sleep apnea in 6-60%. A widely used and validated instrument to evaluate SRBDs is the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ), developed by Chervin et al. in 2000 [1]. This is a 22-item parent-completed questionnaire with a sensitivity of 81% and specificity of 87% for the diagnosis of SRBDs, with a suggested cut-off of ≥0.33. Moreover, the PSQ is able to identify symptoms related to poor quality of sleep, such as day time sleepiness (≥2 of 4 symptoms reported in items B1, B2, B4, B6) and ADHD symptoms (≥3 of 6 symptoms reported in items C3, C5, C8, C10, C14, C18) [2].