Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in Pakistan: A Single Tertiary Care Center Experience

Nadia Sultan,Farrukh Mateen,Amen Mobeen,Imad-ud-din Saqib,Maham Ajmal,Aamir Iftikhar,Mobeen Iqbal,Maimoona Siddiqui,Sohail Naseem

doi:10.7759/cureus.6459

Nadia Sultan, Farrukh Mateen + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.6459

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Abstract

Introduction: Considerable interest has been shown in the field of sleep medicine in recent decades. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common condition that remains neglected in most parts of the world. Data are scarce, if any, when it comes to developing countries. We sought to describe the patient population in a single private tertiary care center from such a country.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study that included a total of 203 patients over a five-year period was conducted. Polysomnographic studies were conducted in a dedicated sleep laboratory, under the supervision of sleep physicians. Data were described and analyzed based on clinical and self-reported outcomes, as well as polysomnographic characteristics, and compared them between genders and severity.Results: With the participants having an average age of 50.84 years and a BMI of 34.7 kg/m2, the study found that the increase in age and BMI was significantly correlated with an increase in the severity of obstructive sleep apnea in the Pakistani population. There was a significant difference in sleep latency (20.6 min in women vs. 10.8 min in men; p-value = 0.001) and efficiency (63.7% in women vs. 69.8 in men; p-value = 0.02) between the two genders. Decreases in nadir saturation, total sleep time, and sleep latency were also associated with an increase in the level of severity.Conclusion: There is a dire need for Pakistani, and in extension Asian, medical professionals to ramp up their pace to meet the needs of their population with regard to sleep medicine.

Highlights

Considerable interest has been shown in the field of sleep medicine in recent decades
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common condition that remains neglected in most parts of the world
With the participants having an average age of 50.84 years and a body mass index (BMI) of 34.7 kg/m 2, the study found that the increase in age and BMI was significantly correlated with an increase in the severity of obstructive sleep apnea in the Pakistani population

Summary

Introduction

Considerable interest has been shown in the field of sleep medicine in recent decades. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common condition that remains neglected in most parts of the world. With the increasing improvements in healthcare and the general standard of living, interest is increasing in conditions that previously had little or no value. Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is one of such conditions, whose importance has just been recently recognized [1]. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) comprises a major part of the spectrum of SDB. It is characterized by recurrent episodes of complete or partial obstruction of the upper airway during sleep, resulting in breathing pauses (apnoeas or hypopneas), snoring and frequent awakenings, leading to sleep fragmentation, and eventually excessive daytime sleepiness due to an unrefreshed sleep [7]. There is insufficient oxygenation and release of stress hormones, which result in the aforementioned adverse health conditions

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