title: [Relationship between the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and internal medicine].
abstract: Twelve to twenty-five percent of human population suffer from sleep disorders and sleep-related breathing disorders have a frequency of 5-10%. The association between sleep-related breathing disorders and several diseases, mainly cardiovascular and dysmetabolic, is well known. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of this association in a group of 620 patients, aged between 18 and 78 years and referred to the Laboratory of Respiratory Pathophysiology of the Umberto I Hospital of Rome. All patients had a clinical history of a sleep-related breathing disorder and answered a specific questionnaire. One-hundred-and-thirty-seven patients (120 males and 17 females, mean age 64 years), whose questionnaire was suggestive of a sleep-related breathing disorder, underwent clinical assessment including blood tests, lung function tests, blood-gas analysis, ECG and nocturnal polysomnography, either as in- or as out-patients. The main associated pathologies were: arterial hypertension (54.7%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (17.9%), obesity (63.1%), dyslipidemia (41%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (6.3%), gastroesophageal reflux (27.3%) and cardiac arrhythmias (4.2%); 95 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome were treated, on the basis of the polysomnography outcomes and according to the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine Guidelines, either with preventive strategies for risk factor reduction, or with medical (positive pressure ventilation, oxygen, assessment of the best drug medication) and/or ear, nose end throat surgical therapies. In most patients, the improvement in the sleep-related breathing disorder was associated with an improvement in their systemic pathology, in particular cardiovascular disease, suggesting the need of a deeper consideration and comprehension of nocturnal apneas.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Invecchiamento, Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Roma. alessandro.perrone@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perrone
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sperduti
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Magliocco
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marchini
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Masciangelo
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbarossa
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brunori
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Germanò
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D017286:Polysomnography; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012384:Rome / Q000453:epidemiology; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires