VFN sleep laboratory and neuromuscular diseases
In addition to common sleep disorders, the VFN Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders is also available for patients with rare neuromuscular diseases.
The department is dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases such as sleep apnea, sleepwalking, REM sleep behavior disorder, restless legs syndrome, but also rare diseases such as narcolepsy, idiopathic hypersomnia and selected neuromuscular diseases (for example, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, myasthenia gravis). Thanks to new devices and comprehensive care "under one roof", doctors are able to prolong the lives of adult patients with neuromuscular diseases and increase their quality.
Rare neurological diseases (approximately five out of ten thousand people suffer from them) represent a significant problem due to the complexity of diagnosis and specific therapeutic options. This includes a large part of neuromuscular diseases. Some of them gradually lead to respiratory insufficiency. This first manifests itself during sleep, and already at this stage it is advisable to treat this problem with non-invasive ventilation support during sleep. As the disease progresses, the need for non-invasive ventilation extends into the daytime as well. The VFN Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders provides diagnosis of breathing and sleep disorders in these diseases and sets up respiratory support treatment that patients use in their home environment.
Diseases with increased sleepiness
Another group of rare neurological diseases are central hypersomnias (diseases with increased sleepiness), which the Center has been dealing with since the middle of the last century. This group includes narcolepsy, which has four classic symptoms: sudden falling asleep, cataplexy (sudden loss of skeletal muscle), sleep paralysis, and sleep hallucinations. The second disease from this group is idiopathic hypersomnia, characterized by a very long night's sleep with difficulty waking up. Idiopathic hypersomnia was first described by the Czech neurologist, associate professor of the neurology clinic and founder of its sleep department, Bedřich Roth.
The center also investigates movement disorder diseases such as Parkinson's disease and its prodromal stage, REM sleep behavior disorder, and sleep-related problems in these diseases. "I am glad that thanks to the recent modernization of the premises of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders, we can now provide diagnostic stays even for completely immobile patients who require the correct setting of respiratory support. Our clinic is one of three workplaces in the Czech Republic that are part of the European network for rare neurological facilities with a focus on comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of movement control disorders." states the head of the Neurological Clinic of the 1st Faculty of Medicine, UK and VFN, prof. MD Robert Jech, Ph.D.
