CORRELATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT ANTHROPOMETRIC VARIABLES AND SEVERITY OF APNOEAASSESSED BY APNEA-HYPOPNEA INDEX (AHI) IN PATIENTS OF OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEPAPNOEA

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is repeated episodes of upper airway closure during sleep that result in recurrent oxyhemoglobin desaturation and sleep fragmentation. It is considered a major public health concern, which can manifest serious physical and social consequences if not managed properly. Obesity, in particular the presence of visceral fat, is considered a predictive factor for OSA. Different anthropometric measurements of obesity e.g., body mass index (BMI), neck circumference (NC), waist circumference (WC) can be used used both to assess the need for patient referral to polysomnographic evaluation and to anticipate treatment in high-risk patients. This study was carried out in a random group of 100 cases of sleep apnoea where we stratified the patients into different severity groups according to Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) and tried to correlate that with the BMI, NC and WC of the individual patients. We found WC is least predictable to signify the severity of sleep apnoea, whereas BMI predicts the severity more accurately. Analysing the correlation both BMI and NC posses strong positive correlation with AHI whereas strength of association with WC is moderate.