Prevalence of hypothyroidism among patients with obstructive sleep apnea: A study in a tertiary care center

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common disorder wherein there are recurrent episodes of sleep disordered breathing resulting in disrupted sleep and other sequelae. The symptoms of hypothyroidism are very similar to OSA, a number of studies have been performed to analyze their association with conflicting results. A questionnaire based on the Wisconsin Sleep Apnea questionnaire for quality of sleep, sleep pattern, symptoms during sleep, snoring were asked to 118 patients included in the study. The day time sleep patterns were assessed by the Epworth Sleepiness scale. Polysomnography testing, Saturated oxygen levels, sleep efficiency and arousal index were also done for all the patients. Blood was collected for the detection of thyroid hormones. There were 82 (69.5%) males and 36 (30.5%) females on the present study out of 118 patients. The mean age of the patients under study was 53.91 ± 4.69 years, the weight was 89.48 ± 12.83 kgs and the BMI was 34.86 ± 6.11. Amongst the patients with OSA and hypothyroid, the apnea hypoapnea index was 66.22 ± 18.31 episodes per hour, and Epworth sleepiness scale was 15.18 ± 5.26 while in patients with OSA and without hypothyroid, it was 24.17 ± 6.29 and 8.25 ± 5.82 respectively. Our study shows a significant association between OSA and hypothyroidism among patients, thus having a considerable implications in managing the thyroid condition of the patients.