K. Sadeghniiat-Haghighi, E. Afzalinejad, A. Najafi, Z.B. Alemohammad, S. Akbarpour

Occupational Sleep Research Center

Baharloo Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Islamic Republic of

In this study, we considered only objective parameters to predict OSA which enhances reliability for diagnosis especially in occupational settings. Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea is an important health problem which is commonly under-diagnosed especially in the workplace settings. We tried to obtain one model with more objective variables because of greater reliability in occupational settings. Materials and methods: A total of 374 patients who were suspicious to have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) underwent polysomnography (PSG) for the first time from March 2017 to Jun 2018 in Baharloo sleep clinic, Tehran, Iran were enrolled in the study. Before PSG, all patients completed a questionnaire including demographic characteristics. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured for all participants. Furthermore, a blood sample was collected for measuring fasting blood sugar and HbA1C. All the patients underwent full PSG. Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI) was calculated and recorded for all patients. Results: A total of 271 (72.5%) participants were male. Their mean age and BMI (body mass index) was 48.58±13.04 years and 30.4±5kg/m2, respectively. The prevalence of RDI ≥15 was 295 (78.87%). Using regression analysis, several models were obtained, where the best one yielded sensitivity and specificity of 78.31% and 67.09%, respectively. Area under cure of this model was 78%. The variables of this model included systolic blood pressure (SBP), age, Neck Height Ratio (NHR), FBS, BMI, and gender (PAN- apnea index) with a cutoff point ≥3 for high risk individuals. Conclusions: In this study, we considered only objective parameters to predict OSA which enhances reliability for diagnosis especially in occupational settings.