Scholars@Duke
Andrew Spector

Andrew Spector

Associate Professor of Neurology
Neurology, Epilepsy and Sleep
2424 Erwin Rd, Suite 1001, DUMC 2720, Dept of Neurology, Durham, NC 27710-2720
2424 Erwin Rd, Suite 1001, DUMC 2720, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications

Understanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Roles in Academic Neurology Departments.

Journal Article Neurology · November 26, 2024 Academic neurology departments across the country have been rapidly adding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs over the past 5-10 years. These programs frequently come with leadership roles that carry a variety of names and responsibilities, su ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluation of a Pre-operative clinic's sleep apnea screening

Journal Article Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management · June 1, 2024 Background: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to evaluate the process and outcomes of utilizing the STOP-BANG questionnaire (SBQ) to screen patients for sleep apnea in a pre-operative clinic. Studies outside the United States show that there is a ... Full text Cite

Permanent standard time is the optimal choice for health and safety: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · January 1, 2024 UNLABELLED: The period of the year from spring to fall, when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time, is called daylight saving time, and its beginning and ending dates and times are set by federal law. The human b ... Full text Link to item Cite

Addressing wearable sleep tracking inequity: a new dataset and novel methods for a population with sleep disorders

Conference Proceedings of Machine Learning Research · January 1, 2024 Sleep is crucial for health, and recent advances in wearable technology and machine learning offer promising methods for monitoring sleep outside the clinical setting. However, sleep tracking using wearables is challenging, particularly for those with irre ... Cite

Non-REM Sleep Parasomnias.

Journal Article Continuum (Minneap Minn) · August 1, 2023 OBJECTIVE: Non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) parasomnias are common across the lifespan. This article describes the manifestations, diagnosis, and management of non-REM parasomnias in adults and discusses the social implications of these conditions. LATEST ... Full text Link to item Cite

A sleep clinician's guide to runny noses: evaluation and management of chronic rhinosinusitis to improve sleep apnea care in adults.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · August 1, 2023 STUDY OBJECTIVES: The treatment of obstructive sleep apnea is often impeded by intolerance of positive airway pressure therapy, which is frequently attributed to the inability to breathe through the nose. Providers caring for patients with sleep apnea need ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Concise Review of Polysomnography and Obstructive Sleep Apnea for the Neurophysiologist.

Journal Article J Clin Neurophysiol · March 1, 2023 Sleep as an electrical phenomenon in the brain was first recorded in 1875. Over the next 100 years, recordings of sleep evolved into modern-day polysomnography, which includes not only electroencephalography but also combinations of electro-oculography, el ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sleep disparities in Asian Americans: a comprehensive review.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · February 1, 2023 STUDY OBJECTIVES: This review summarizes race-based sleep health disparities between Asian Americans and other American racial groups and compares sleep outcomes between Asian American subgroups disaggregated by ethnicity and ancestral national origin. The ... Full text Link to item Cite

The potential link between obstructive sleep apnea and postoperative neurocognitive disorders: current knowledge and possible mechanisms.

Journal Article Can J Anaesth · October 2022 PURPOSE: This narrative review examines the current evidence on whether obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with postoperative delirium (POD) and postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). The mechanisms that could predispose OSA patients to these ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Neurological interest and career exploration among black medical students: Perceptions and solutions for the pipeline.

Journal Article J Natl Med Assoc · January 2022 PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to identify factors that influence the selection of Neurology as a career choice for Black medical students. METHODS: Survey data was collected from attendees at a national educational conference and at a large academic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neighborhoods with 25% Minority Residents Are Still Mostly White.

Journal Article Am J Respir Crit Care Med · September 1, 2021 Full text Link to item Cite

Developing the Neurology Diversity Officer: A Roadmap for Academic Neurology Departments.

Journal Article Neurology · February 22, 2021 Academic neurology departments must confront the challenges of developing a diverse workforce, reducing inequity and discrimination within academia, and providing neurologic care for an increasingly diverse society. A neurology diversity officer should hav ... Full text Link to item Cite

Qualifying Patients for Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation Devices on Hospital Discharge.

Journal Article Chest · December 2020 When and how do I qualify inpatients with acute on chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure for home noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation at the time of discharge? A 44-year-old woman with morbid obesity (BMI, 48) was brought to the hospital by her boy ... Full text Link to item Cite

Introducing the Society of Black Neurologists.

Journal Article Lancet Neurol · November 2020 Full text Link to item Cite

Opportunities to enhance the AAAAI Physician Burnout Survey.

Journal Article J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract · September 2020 Full text Link to item Cite

Obstructive sleep apnea in late-onset Pompe disease treated by enzyme replacement therapy.

Journal Article Neuromuscul Disord · April 2020 Obstructive sleep apnea is a common complication of Pompe disease. Treatment for obstructive sleep apnea in patients with Pompe disease is similar to treatment in the general population, typically involving positive airway pressure therapy. We present a ca ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phrenic Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Central Sleep Apnea: A Pooled Cohort Analysis.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · December 15, 2019 STUDY OBJECTIVES: Early evidence with transvenous phrenic nerve stimulation (PNS) demonstrates improved disease severity and quality of life (QOL) in patients with central sleep apnea (CSA). The goal of this analysis is to evaluate the complete prospective ... Full text Link to item Cite

Predictors of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea: identification of sex differences.

Journal Article Sleep Breath · December 2019 PURPOSE: Home sleep apnea tests are recommended only for patients at high risk of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA, apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] ≥ 15/h). We evaluated 14 factors known to be associated with OSA and identified sex differences in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phrenic Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Central Sleep Apnea: A Pooled Cohort Analysis.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · November 5, 2019 STUDY OBJECTIVES: Early evidence with transvenous phrenic nerve stimulation (PNS) demonstrates improved disease severity and quality of life (QOL) in patients with central sleep apnea (CSA). The goal of this analysis is to evaluate the complete prospective ... Link to item Cite

Reducing Reliance on Test Scores Reduces Racial Bias in Neurology Residency Recruitment.

Journal Article J Natl Med Assoc · October 2019 PURPOSE: We sought to correct a low interview rate for racial groups underrepresented in medicine (URM) by analyzing our interview selection process, identifying sources of unintended bias, and developing a new process that would provide a more racially di ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Association of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risk with Postoperative Cognitive Decline

Conference JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY · April 1, 2019 Link to item Cite

Emergency Neurology Oral Cases for Trainee Assessment and Education.

Journal Article Neurologist · March 2019 OBJECTIVES: Neurological emergencies comprise much of neurology residency, but there may be a lack of clinical experience. For our program, oral examinations have been used to assess resident readiness for additional clinical independence. In this study, w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Heart-Shaped Bilateral Medullary Pyramidal Infarction as a Pathognomonic Finding of Anterior Spinal Artery Occlusion.

Journal Article Neurocrit Care · June 2018 BACKGROUND: Unilateral anterior spinal artery (ASA) occlusion resulting in bilateral medullary pyramidal (BMP) infarction is a rare and devastating stroke subtype. We present two cases highlighting the diagnostic and clinical challenges of BMP infarction. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Levothyroxine improves subjective sleepiness in a euthyroid patient with narcolepsy without cataplexy.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · November 15, 2014 OBJECTIVE: We discuss the use of levothyroxine for excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and prolonged nocturnal sleep time in a euthyroid patient with narcolepsy. METHODS: After failure of first-line narcolepsy treatments, a 48-year-old female began levothyr ... Full text Link to item Cite

CPAP treats muscle cramps in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Journal Article J Clin Sleep Med · June 15, 2014 We describe a case series of 4 patients with varying degrees of obstructive sleep apnea who incidentally had a history of nocturnal leg cramps. None of the patients had periodic limb movements during the study and denied symptoms consistent with restless l ... Full text Link to item Cite

Anatomy of disturbed sleep in pallido-ponto-nigral degeneration.

Journal Article Ann Neurol · June 2011 OBJECTIVE: Pallido-ponto-nigral degeneration (PPND), caused by an N279K mutation of the MAPT gene, is 1 of a family of disorders collectively referred to as frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17. This study aims to characterize t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Physiologic pseudoseizures: an EEG case report of mistake in identity.

Journal Article J Clin Neurophysiol · June 2011 The misdiagnosis of epilepsy may occur from the misinterpretation of a routine scalp EEG. Typically, interictal epileptiform discharges are misidentified on EEGs because of the overinterpretation of normal variants or variations in normal electrocerebral a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinically significant bradyarrhythmias in video-EEG patients.

Journal Article Seizure · April 2011 PURPOSE: The prevalence of patients thought to have epilepsy who are ultimately diagnosed with asystole or bradyarrhythmias not associated with seizures is currently unknown. We studied a tertiary referral population to determine the rate of clinically sig ... Full text Link to item Cite

The stroke that struck back: an unusual alien hand presentation.

Journal Article J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis · January 2009 Alien hand syndrome is a rare condition that can result from neurodegenerative disorders, tumors, or strokes. We encountered an acute presentation of alien hand syndrome from a right parietal ischemic stroke. The condition was not recognized by the emergen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Smoking cessation delivered by medical students is helpful to homeless population.

Journal Article Acad Psychiatry · 2007 OBJECTIVE: The authors pilot a smoking-cessation outreach for the homeless that extends medical students' tobacco cessation education. METHOD: In this prospective study, second-year medical students administered cognitive behavior therapy or unstructured s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Functioning and interpersonal relationships as predictors of response in treatment-resistant depression.

Journal Article Compr Psychiatry · 2003 The purpose of this study was to examine whether occupational functioning or the quality of interpersonal relationships is predictive of clinical response to a 6-week open trial of nortriptyline (NT) in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). N ... Full text Link to item Cite

Behavioral and emotional disturbances in the offspring of depressed parents with anger attacks.

Journal Article Psychother Psychosom · 2003 BACKGROUND: To examine the emotional and behavioral characteristics of the offspring of depressed parents with and without anger attacks. METHODS: Forty-three parents who met criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) completed the Achenbach Child Behavi ... Full text Link to item Cite