title: Impact of obstructive sleep apnea on cognitive performance.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on cognition.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the performance of 17 patients with polysomnographic diagnosis of OSA in brief cognitive tests to that of 20 healthy controls, matched for age and education. The testing battery included the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB), Digit-Symbol (DS) and Phonemic Verbal Fluency (FAS). Anthropometric measures and scores from the Epworth Sleepiness Scale were also recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  OSA patients performed significantly worse than controls in the MMSE, in memory items from the BCSB, in DS and also in FAS. OSA patients also exhibited higher body mass index, increased neck circumference and higher scores in Epworth Sleepiness Scale than controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  OSA significantly impairs cognitive performance, especially within the domains of attention, memory and executive functioning. These deficits may be detected by brief and easy-to-administer cognitive tests.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociências, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Felipe Cunha
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Bawden
authors.forename: Cristiane Assis
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Caramelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017286:Polysomnography; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000150:complications*; D055815:Young Adult