We salute and remember Dr. Christian Guilleminault on the first anniversary of his passing.
From Wikipedia: [ Ссылка ]
Born in 1938 in Marseilles, France, he earned his medical degree and PhD at the University of Paris, and completed residencies in psychiatry and neurology in Paris and at the University of Geneva.
While working at the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic in 1972 as a visiting assistant professor, Guilleminault became keenly interested in reports published by Italian sleep researcher Elio Lugaresi who had reported that nocturnal hypertension was present in patients who snored. Guilleminault persuaded cardiologists John Shroeder and Ara Tilkian to spend nights in the hospital's clinical research center monitoring the systemic and pulmonary arterial blood pressure in sleeping patients. The team observed that when patients fell asleep and began snoring, prolonged pauses in their breathing (apneas) were noted that corresponded with dramatic elevations in their resting blood pressure, simulating strenuous exercise as if the patient were lifting weights. Guilleminault then went on to publish several articles illustrating dramatic improvements and reversal of sleep apnea following tracheostomies. Tracheostomy proved curative in these patients, and demonstrated reversal of cardiac arrhythmias and blood pressure abnormalities during sleep; temporarily capping these artificial airways would re-capitulate the changes of sleep apnea, further establishing the causative relationship between sleep apnea and cardiovascular abnormalities.
