Neurocognitive Function in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients

Choi, B H; Kim, L; Suh, K Y

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the neurocognitive dysfunction and the degree of severity according to the oxygen desaturation in obstructive sleep apnea patients. We performed nocturnal polysomnographic recording and administered 3 Vienna Test System subtest of Reaction unit, Continuous attention and Cognitrone to 11 obstructive sleep patients and 13 controls. The result were as follows : 1) On Continuous attentin and Cognitrone, patients with obstructive sleep apnea showed significant lower score on correct answer, higher score on missed answer and prolonged reaction time than control. But, there was no significant difference on Reaction unit between two groups. 2) Among 3 groups divided by degree of oxygen desaturation, there were no significant differences on Reaction unit. As the oxygen saturation decreased however, the obstructive sleep apnea group revealed significantly poor performance score on continuous attention and cognitrone. We suggested that obstuctive sleep apnea patients showed disturbed neurocognitive function with complex cognitive process and the severity of neurocognitive dysfunction was also correlated with oxygen desaturation.