Assessment of Neurocognitive Impairment in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is usually reported in south Indian population. The indications of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) comprise of breathing difficulties particularly owing to obstruction in the upper airway tract. The present study investigated the effect of the syndrome, the patients documented with OSA, by categorizing the patients into mild, moderate and severe OSA groups depending on apnea-hyponea index (AHI), derived from sleep study (polysomnographic findings). The comparative evaluation of various outcomes considered in this study included healthy individuals (control group, AHI < 5), mild OSA (AHI 5–15), moderate (OSA 15–30) and severe (AHI > 30). Investigations were conducted on the subjects which evaluated baseline characteristics, polysomnographic data and neuro-cognitive performances by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The results revealed significantly higher body mass index (BMI), snoring and decresed sleep efficiency in patients with sleep apnea syndrome when compared with control group. OSA patients further exhibited compromised neuro-cognitive. The intensity of the impairments and difficulties increased with upsurge in severity of the syndrome among all patients. The findings of this work strongly indicated that impaired executive functioning; neuro-cognitive abnormalities exit in a heightened state among OSA patients, than in the normal healthy individuals, the control group. These findings in aggregate would help clinicians in diagnosis and in understanding the disease prognosis.