Hi.

I thought I'd start a thread here:

UARS/Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome, is a type of sleep disorder, that is NOT the same as OSA/Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

UARS patients have problems of physical narrowing in several areas relating to their upper airway (space in nostrils tends to collapse, for various reasons, &/or, there may be less than 10 mm opening behind back of tongue, &/or, turbinates may be too big, &/or there may be a very deviated septum, etc.) and CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure: air from mask forced into patient's nose/mouth, used by those with OSA) may or may not help the UARS patient.

The narrowing, may be from a genetic or non-genetic problem. Check on possible Marfan's Syndrome (a genetic problem).

Some UARS patients required multiple surgeries, to partially correct symptoms. UARS manifests (shows itself) as multiple EEG (Electo Encephalo Gram, showing brain waves) arousals during the night, from partial upper airway obstructions, leading to daytime fatigue (bigtime), leading to many other problems. Many UARS patients are NOT obese, and may never have breathing entirely stop, as happens in sleep apnea.

One patient having UARS (early 2006), suspects possible VCD (Vocal Cord Dysfunction), as a partial factor causing patient's residual problems from UARS, and suspects that the UARS may have predisposed patient to getting VCD (along with possible LPR/laryngo pharyngeal reflux, air quality problems, etc. etc.).

An excellent article by 2 doctors (many clinical observations, and sympathetic attitude) about the controversial diagnosis of the sleep disorder now called UARS, is at this link:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/494651

The article's title is: "Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome-One Decade Later", by physicians Gang Bao and Christian Guilleminault, and article is from the medical journal called Current Opinion in Pumonary Medicine, 10(6):461-467, 2004. Copyright Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Dr. Guilleminault, M.D. (sleep disorders expert) is at Stanford University, in California--the only sleep center that recognizes & specializes in UARS (I think).

Apparently, not only is UARS controversial, but payers (insurance
companies) don't always (if ever) recognize it, and won't even pay for cpap, when the cpap does help!

I have the above info, in my website, on webpage 5. Here's a link to my website's homepage:
http://cantbreathesuspectvcd.com

Hope the above info helps someone!

Carol