Usefulness of arousal for the diagnosis of sleep breathing disorder.
We hypothesize that breathing disorder related arousal index (B-ArI) can differentiate sleep breathing disorder from simple snorer when apnea hypopnea index (AHI) is low. We studied 54 patients using polysomnography. Breathing disorder related arousal (B-Ar) was defined as arousal accompanied by apnea, hypopnea, desaturation or snort. Mean AHI was 44.2+/-34.0/h, and B-ArI correlated significantly with AHI, desaturation index, percentage total sleep time with SpO2 below 90%. Breathing disorder related arousal index was greater than AHI when AHI was below 20. In 11/54 patients, AHI was below 10, and B-ArI more than 10. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure was applied to six patients and showed reduced B-ArI. Breathing disorder related arousal index may be one of the useful indices for the diagnosis of sleep breathing disorder when AHI is less than 10.
Yamashiro
Y
Y
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Suganuma
Y
Y
Hosaka
K
K
Uchida
K
K
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D012913:Snoring / Q000503:physiopathology