Blood oxygen implications of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) combined with patent foramen ovale (PFO) in Northwest, China

Abstract

Purpose: OSA and PFO both can lead to changes in blood oxygen. In this study, we sought to determine whether blood oxygen changes were further exacerbated with OSA combined with PFO. Methods: Based on c-TCD and PSG results, 623 patients were retrospectively included. According to the results, the patients were divided into 4 groups: OSA and PFO double-positive group, PFO single-positive group, OSA single-positive group, and OSA and PFO double-negative group. In addition, based on the AHI results, we extracted all the severe and moderate patients, and then used the PFO results to group them into the OSA single-positive Moderate-Severe group and the OSA and PFO double-positive Moderate-Severe group. The minimum oxygen saturation, ODI, sleep time with oxygen saturation <90% (TST90) and the percentage of cumulative time with oxygen saturation below 90% in total sleep time(T90) were analysis. Results: The minimum oxygen saturation, ODI: There were statistical differences the four groups (P < 0.000). However, there was no statistical difference between the double-positive group and the OSA single-positive group. At the same time, there was no statistical difference between the PFO single-positive group and the all-negative group either. In addition, there was no statistical difference between the all-positive group and the OSA single-positive group in the Moderate-Severe group. TST90 and T90: There were statistical differences between the OSA single-positive Moderate-Severe group and the OSA and PFO double-positive Moderate-Severe group. Conclusions: Patients with OSA-PFO overlap had more severe intermittent hypoxia during sleep than patients with OSA alone.