J Sleep Med.  2015 Dec;12(2):34-38. 10.13078/jsm.15007.

Predictors for Presence and Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Snoring Patients: Significance of Neck Circumference

• Kim SE
• Park BS
• Park SH
• Shin KJ
• Ha SY
• Park J
• Park KM

• KMID: 2223616
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.13078/jsm.15007

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Documented risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea include advanced age, male gender, hypertension, large neck circumference, and obesity; but some controversy remains regarding the risk factors, especially in Asians. In this study, we evaluated the risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea in snoring patients, and also analyzed the risk factors that could predict the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.
METHODS
The inclusion criteria were patients 1) who visited our hospital with a chief complaint of snoring as witnessed by a sleep partner and 2) who underwent overnight polysomnography. The primary endpoint was the presence of obstructive sleep apnea as a dependent variable.
RESULTS
One hundred forty-seven patients met the inclusion criteria. Of the 147 patients, 109 patients were diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Multivariate analysis showed that old age and large neck circumference were significant independent variables for predicting the presence of obstructive sleep apnea, whereas hypertension and large neck circumference were independent variables for predicting the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.
CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated that neck circumference can be used to predict the presence as well as the severity of obstructive sleep apnea in snoring Asian patients.

Keyword

Neck; Risk factors; Sleep apnea; Polysomnography

MeSH Terms

Asian Continental Ancestry Group
Humans
Hypertension
Male
Multivariate Analysis
Neck*
Obesity
Polysomnography
Risk Factors
Sleep Apnea Syndromes
Sleep Apnea, Obstructive*
Snoring*