Chest
Clinical InvestigationSleepSerum Leptin and Vascular Risk Factors in Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Section snippets
Subjects
Subjects were recruited from those who were referred forsuspected sleep apnea to the Sleep Clinic, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, and from those who participated in aterritory-wide study on prevalence of sleep apnea. The study wasapproved by the institutional Ethics Committee. All subjects underwentan overnight sleep study to document sleep-disordered breathing, and fasting morning venous blood samples were taken with informed consent. Adult subjects with documented OSA,
Results
Thirty subjects with documented OSA syndrome(AHI = 35.7 ± 18) were compared with 30 subjects without OSA (AHI=1.8 ± 1.9), matched for sex, age, BMI, and in female subjects, for menopausal status. Their demographic and anthropometriccharacteristics are shown in Table 1. There were no significant differences between the two groups in theirbody habitus measurements of neck, waist, and hip circumference, butthere was significantly more subcutaneous fat in the OSA group, as indicated by skinfold
Discussion
OSA is now known to affect at least 2 to 4% of the middle-agedpopulation in white262728 as well as some Asianpopulations.29 The major concerns about the adverse healtheffects of OSA, apart from symptoms of excessive daytime sleepiness, are its association with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular morbidityand mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke.123While controversy and research are ongoing as to whether thisassociation is comorbid or causal, it is well appreciated thatindependent
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Ms. Audrey Ip, Ms. Rosa Wong, and Mr. K.M. Lo for technical assistance, Dr. K.N. Chan for statisticaladvice, and Ms. Wendy Mok for statistical analysis.
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This study was partially supported by Earmarked Competitive Grant no. HKU 457/96M, Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong, China.