폐쇄성수면무호흡증후군 환자의 무호흡-저호흡지수와 임상양상간의 상관성

Correlation between Clinical Characteristics and Apnea-Hypopnea Index with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Obstructive sleep apena syndrome (OSAS) is accompanied by the following symptoms: apnea caused by upper respiratory tract obstruction while sleeping, repetitive lowering of $SpO_2$, severely affected excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), suffocation/frequent awakeness while sleeping, daytime lethargy, and lack of concentration. OSAS was investigated with sex, age, body weight, body mass index (BMI), neck circumference and snoring sound as clinical characteristics and the anticipating factors of OSAS were studied in relation with the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). The subjects were 42 people (male 34/female 8) who visited the clinic due to snoring and had polysomnography evaluation. AHI was differenciated into normal (less than 0~5/hr), mild (5~15/hr), moderate (15~30/hr) and severe (more than 30/hr). As the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) gets higher, the snoring sound was louder (p<0.01), neck circumference was thicker (p<0.05) and also there were relative correlations with body weight (p<0.01), body mass index (p<0.05), snoring sound (p<0.01) and neck circumference (p<0.01). Since the snoring sound and neck circumference explained 32.8% of the AHI distribution, if the patient was severely snoring or had a thick neck circumference due to obesity, the apnea-hypopnea index showed a predisposition to the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.