Associations of Moderate to Severe Asthma with Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Original Article  Open Access

|    Yonsei Med J. 2013 Jul;54(4):942-948. English. Published online 2013 May 14.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2013.54.4.942  © Copyright: Yonsei University College of Medicine 2013 Associations of Moderate to Severe Asthma with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Min Kwang Byun,1 Seon Cheol Park,2 Yoon Soo Chang,1,3 Young Sam Kim,2,3 Se Kyu Kim,2,3 Hyung Jung Kim,1,3 Joon Chang,2,3 Chul Min Ahn,1,3 and Moo Suk Park2,3 1Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 2Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 3The Institute of Chest Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.  Corresponding author: Dr. Moo Suk Park, Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, Korea. Tel: 82-2-2228-1974, Fax: 82-2-393-6884, Email: pms70@yuhs.ac  Received March 19, 2012; Revised September 10, 2012; Accepted September 11, 2012. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between associating factors of moderate to severe asthma with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Materials and Methods One hundred and sixty-seven patients who visited the pulmonary and sleep clinic in Severance Hospital presenting with symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing were evaluated. All subjects were screened with ApneaLink. Thirty-two subjects with a high likelihood of having OSA were assessed with full polysomnography (PSG). Results The mean age was 58.8±12.0 years and 58.7% of subjects were male. The mean ApneaLink apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was 12.7±13.0/hr. The mean ApneaLink AHI for the 32 selected high risk patients of OSA was 22.3±13.2/hr, which was lower than the sleep laboratory-based PSG AHI of 39.1±20.5/hr. When OSA was defined at an ApneaLink AHI ≥5/hr, the positive correlating factors for OSA were age, male gender, and moderate to severe asthma. Conclusion Moderate to severe asthma showed strong correlation with OSA when defined at an ApneaLink AHI ≥5/hr. Keywords: Apnea-hypopnea index, ApneaLink, asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, sleep-disordered breathing. Full Text