ORIGINAL ARTICLE

A STUDY OF SLEEP BREATHING DISORDERS IN THE ELDERLY

By
Wafaa El-Shimy, Tarek El-Behidy, Amgad Farhat, Gehan Abo El-Magd
Chest Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University.

Correspondence to: Amgad Farhat, Email: amgad_farhat@yahoo.com

Background: Sleep complaints are common in the geriatric age group with more than half of the elderly endorsing a complaint about their sleep quality. The most common complaint is difficulty with maintenance of sleep.

Methods: This study was conducted on 100 apparently healthy elderly subjects (above 50 years). Sleep study was conducted in the sleep laboratory, Chest Department, Tanta University Hospital at night during sleep for at least 6 hours. Patients with apnea hypopnea index (AHI) >5 events/hour (Group II) underwent another diagnostic study in the sleep laboratory in the second night after insertion of Swan Ganz catheter. Therapeutic study was done on the 3rd night for these patients for CPAP titration.

Results: The mean values of age in Group I (subjects with AHI <5 events/hour was 57.86±5.83 years, while in Group II it was 63.23±8.04 years. Age was significantly higher in group II compared to group I. The prevalence of mild AHI (5-15) event/ hour was 36% and 25% in men and women respectively. The prevalence of moderate AHI (16-30) event/ hour was 18% and 7% in men and women respectively. The prevalence of severe AHI (> 30) was 12.5% and 2% in men and women respectively. The mean value of cardiac output (CO) L/min, mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) mmHg. were 4.51±0.08, 86.12±1.53, 21.59±3.51 and 13.03±0.6 in group II before CPAP respectively and 5.01±0.09, 85.23±1, 17.76±1.28 and 12.33±0.53 after CPAP respectively.

Conclusions: A significant positive correlation was found between apnea hypopnea index (AHI) and age indicating that age is a risk factor for sleep-related breathing disorders. The incidence of sleep-breathing disorders was higher in men than in women. CPAP caused significant improvement in sleep breathing disorders and hemodynamic parameters in the studied elderly subjects.

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