[Clinical characteristics of sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome in women].
OBJECTIVE
To realize the characteristics of symptoms and polysomnography in women with sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) compared with that of male patients.


METHODS
The symptoms and polysomnography were compared between men and women with SAHS and among mild (5 to 19 events/h), moderate (20 to 39 events/h), severe (> or = 40 events/h) of female patients.


RESULTS
Female patients were older than that of male(51.1 +/- 11.2 yr versus 43.9 +/- 10.1 yr). The mean body mass index(BMI) for women was (27.8 +/- 3.9) kg/m2 and (28.1 +/- 3.8) kg/m2 for men. Women with higher AHI snored more severely, and female had a lower apnea hypopnea index (AHI) and apnea index (AI) but higher hypopnea index (HI) than did male. In addition, the respiratory events during non-rapid eye movement for men were significantly higher than that for women.


CONCLUSIONS
Female patients are older than male but not more adipose. SAHS and respiratory events during NREM sleep are less severe in women.
Ye
Jing-ying
JY
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Affiliated Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China. yejingying@yeah.net
Wang
Xiao-yi
XY
Han
De-min
DM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D012737:Sex Factors; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012895:Sleep, REM