{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,11]],"date-time":"2026-08-11T18:36:34Z","timestamp":1786473394365,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,12]],"date-time":"2026-07-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783814400000},"content-version":"am","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/pages\/standard-publication-reuse-rights"}],"funder":[{"name":"Science, Education, and Health of Suzhou Youth Science and Technology Project","award":["KJXW2021016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["KJXW2021016"]}]},{"name":"Suzhou Science and Technology Development Plan for New Clinical Diagnostic and Treatment Technologies","award":["SKY2023054"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SKY2023054"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100020771","name":"Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["82500144"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["82500144"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100020771","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["82070095 and 82470094"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["82070095 and 82470094"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Study Objectives<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Excessive cerebral iron deposition has been implicated in cognitive dysfunction across several neurological disorders. We evaluated severity-dependent patterns of cerebral iron accumulation in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and assessed their potential role in mediating cognitive impairment.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The cohort comprised 139 OSA patients, stratified by severity (68 mild\u2013moderate [OSA-M: apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) 5-30 events\/hour] and 71 severe [OSA-S: AHI\u2009&amp;gt;\u200930 events\/hour]), and 48 healthy controls. All underwent polysomnography, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and 3\u00a0T MRI with multi-echo gradient echo sequences for QSM analysis. Whole-brain voxel-wise comparisons characterized iron deposition patterns. Correlation analysis and mediation models evaluated associations between OSA severity, regional iron content, and cognition.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>With increasing OSA severity, iron content increased in the bilateral precentral gyri, bilateral medial superior frontal gyri, right putamen and middle cingulate gyrus. Notably, higher QSM values in the left precentral gyrus and right putamen were negatively correlated with cognitive impairment, particularly visuospatial function (p\u2009&amp;lt;\u2009.05). Mediation analysis demonstrated iron deposition in the right putamen partially mediated associations between AHI, N3 sleep stage proportion, percentage of total sleep time with oxygen saturation\u2009&amp;lt;\u200990%, and cognitive function, particularly visuospatial and executive abilities.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Cerebral iron overload may contribute to cognitive dysfunction across OSA severity levels. The partial mediating effect of putaminal iron supports chronic intermittent hypoxia-induced iron dysregulation as a potential neuropathological mechanism. These findings, predominantly from a male cohort, identify cerebral iron deposition as a potential therapeutic target for mitigating cognitive decline in OSA.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1093\/sleep\/zsag186","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,10]],"date-time":"2026-07-10T11:55:38Z","timestamp":1783684538000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Aberrant cerebral iron deposition mediates cognitive dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea: evidence from a severity-stratified quantitative susceptibility mapping study"],"prefix":"10.1093","author":[{"given":"Shiyuan","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory and Critical Care, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University , 1055 Sanxiang Road, Suzhou ,","place":["China"]},{"name":"Department of Sleep Centre, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University , 1055 Sanxiang Road, Suzhou 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