Role of Biomarkers to Screen for Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Role of Biomarkers to Screen for Obstructive Sleep Apnea
assess the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and endocrine, inflammatory, and
 metabolic bio-markers in consecutively enrolled adult male patients with a clinical suspicion
 of obstructive sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disorder with high prevalence, estimated to occur in 34%
 of men and 17% of women , afflicting more than 100 million adults worldwide.

 OSA is the third most common serious respiratory condition after Asthma and COPD.

 Patients with untreated OSA are at increased risk for hypertension, cardiovascular disease,
 heart failure, stroke, obesity, metabolic dysregulation, diabetes mellitus, daytime
 sleepiness, depression, accidents and are a significant burden on the healthcare system.

 Unfortunately, up to 90% of individuals with OSA remain without a diagnosis or therapy.

 The association between OSA and adverse health consequences has led the American Heart
 Association and others to suggest that OSA screening be integrated into routine clinical
 care.

 Current tools for OSA screening rely on questionnaires with low diagnostic accuracy from
 low-quality studies, as reported in meta-analyses, OSA screening measures that are frequently
 used include the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and STOP-Bang questionnaires.

 The ESS assesses subjective daytime sleepiness but is nonspecific for OSA, was not designed
 nor validated for OSA screening.

 The recent American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) clinical practice guidelines report that
 more accurate and user-friendly screening tools, such as blood bio-markers, are needed to
 better predict OSA diagnosis and severity, a recent review of potential OSA bio-markers
 concludes that an optimal screening test should be clinically sensitive, specific, simple,
 timely, inexpensive, and correlate to disease severity.

 Furthermore, bio-markers should make pathophysiological sense, reflecting functional changes
 that accompany OSA.

 Numerous individual OSA blood bio-markers have been studied previously dysfunctions in
 metabolic and endocrine systems induced by OSA, chronic inflammation, hypoxemia, sleep
 fragmentation, and stress are associated with alterations in bio-markers. These bio-markers
 include glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), C-reactive protein (CRP), erythropoietin (EPO), and uric
 acid,Unfortunately, the diagnostic utility of individual bio-markers or combinations of
 markers is inconclusive in identifying OSA.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  All patients with a clinical suspicion of obstructive sleep apnea enrolled to the
 investigator's chest department.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients who previously treated as obstructive sleep apnea, or receiving opioid pain
 medications.