SleepApneaDisorder/[ Press Release ]/ Falls Church, Virginia. / Obstructive sleep apnea, caused by narrowing or blockage of the airways when a person is asleep affects about 20% of the population. Typically a person with OSA will begin snoring loudly on falling asleep. If not treated, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can increase a person’s risk of death.  It is not clear whether an enlarged thyroid gland, known as a goiter, can worsen cause or worsen symptoms of OSA by compressing the airway.

Alexandra Reiher, MD, and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, evaluated the impact of goiter on OSA by assessing OSA symptoms such as snoring before and after thyroidectomy to remove all or part of and enlarged thyroid gland. Patients who reported symptoms of OSA included snoring were asked to complete a questionnaire before and 8 weeks after undergoing thyroidectomy. Data presented today at the 81st Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association showed significantly fewer patients (51% versus 71%) were considered to be at high risk for OSA following surgical reduction or removal of the thyroid gland. Symptom scores improved substantially after thyroidectomy, including a significant decrease in snoring frequency and lower scores on the question of whether the snoring bothered others.

“Obstructive sleep apnea is obviously a complex problem with numerous causes, but we find it encouraging that thyroidectomy alone can provide significant improvements in nearly a third of patients, regardless of gland size,” said study author Rebecca Sippel, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of General Surgery, and Chief, Section of Endocrine Surgery, at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Read the rest of this entry

In a recently concluded research the investigators aimed to evaluate the predictive value of anthropometric measurements and self-reported symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in a large number of not yet diagnosed or treated patients. Commonly used clinical indices were used to derive a prediction formula that could identify patients at low and high risk for OSAS.

Two thousand six hundred ninety patients with suspected OSAS were enrolled.Researchers obtained weight; height; neck, waist, and hip circumference; and a measure of subjective sleepiness (Epworth sleepiness scale-ESS) prior to diagnostic polysomnography. Excessive daytime sleepiness severity (EDS) was coded as follows: 0 for ESS???3 (normal), 1 for ESS score 4-9 (normal to mild sleepiness), 2 for score 10-16 (moderate to severe sleepiness), and 3 for score >16 (severe sleepiness). Multivariate linear and logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and derive a prediction formula. Read the rest of this entry

A research study was concluded recently to estimate the population prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in an urban community of German third graders and the diagnostic test accuracy of two OSA screening methods.

Using a cross-sectional study design with a multi-stage sampling strategy, 27 out of 59 primary schools within the city limits of Hannover, Germany, were selected. One-thousand and forty-four (1044)  third graders were screened for symptoms of Sleep Apnea along with Symptoms and signs of OSA using questionnaires and nocturnal home pulse oximetry. Read the rest of this entry