Dyslipidemia Prevalence in non-Obese non-Diabetic Patients with Obstructive Sleep APNEA: Does Sex Matter?

Abstract

<b>Background and objective:</b> Several studies have shown impaired lipid profile in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Herein, we aimed to examine the lipid profile of non-diabetic and non-obese OSA patients and define the possible effects of age and sex. <b>Methods:</b> We retrospectively evaluated 2907 consecutive adults who has undergone polysomnography. A total of 2022 patients were excluded due to obesity (BMI&gt;30kg/m2), diabetes, untreated hypothyroidism, using lipid lowering drugs, or missing sleep data. <b>Results:</b> Out of 882 patients (74.8% male, aged 46.8±12.2 year), included in the study, 70.1% had OSA. The proportions of patients with atherogenic dyslipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, and high non-HDL-cholesterol levels (&gt;160 mg/dL) were significantly higher in OSA than non-OSA subjects. In multivariate analysis, the rate of hypercholesterolemia increased with severity of OSA (p=0.049), sleep time with oxygen saturation &lt;90% (p=0.041), and age (p&lt;0.001), besides, high non-HDL-cholesterol levels increased with OSA severity (p=0.006) and age (p=0.013) in female OSA patients, not in males. <b>Conclusion:</b> We showed that after excluding confounding obesity and diabetes, lipid profile including total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, non-HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides is impaired in association with the severity of OSA. However, the association between dyslipidemia and OSA were only significant in women, not in men.