Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common disorder whose prevalence is linked to an epidemic of obesity. OSAS is caused by recurrent episodes of upper airway obstruction during sleep, leading to reduction or cessation of the airflow. Studies have shown a strong association among OSAS and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Therefore, currently we performe overnight polysomnograpy in all patients with obesity in our outpatient clinic. In order to observe the results, we retrospectively analyzed the polysomnography results of 54 patients with obesity who were followed-up in our outpatient clinic.

Results: Medical records of 54 patients with obesity [22 male and 32 female, mean age 54.5±9.0 and mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of 41±8.0 kg/m²].The mean age and BMI between male and female patients were not significantly different [55.6±9.0 and 38.3±6.0 kg/m²; 53.8±8.7 and 41.3±8.8 kg/m², respectively (p>0.05)]. OSAS was detected in 49 of 54 (90%) patients. Mean BMI was 41.4±8.4 and 35.6±2.9 kg/m² in obese patients with and without OSAS, respectively (P=0.02). In their medical records, 44 of 49 patient with OSAS were found to be classified according to the severity of OSAS (5 of them were not determined severe or not). These 44 patients with OSAS were divided into 3 subgroups including mild, moderate and severe, according to the severity of OSAS. In this study, 9,11 and 24 patients with mean BMI of 43.7, 38.7 and 43.2 kg/m² had mild, moderate and severe OSAS, respectively.No correlation was found between the severity of OSAS and BMI in our study (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Although OSAS was more common in patients with BMI of >35 kg/m², the severity of OSAS was not related to higher BMI levels. Other confounding factors rather than BMI should be taken in consideration during the assessment of the severity of OSAS.