ABSTRACT
Obstructive sleep apnea [OSA] syndrome is frequent, and misdiagnosed. Of this study is to assess the prevalence of OSA syndrome in a Tunisian population of obese [body mass index>or=30 Kg/m[2]] and to determine its predictive factors. It's a transversal study. One hundred patients [63 females, 37 males] were inculded. All patients underwent nocturnal polysomnography or respiratory polygraphy. Sixty-five patients had an OSA syndrome: mild [24.6%], moderate [30.7%] and severe [44.6%]. We compared, by a statistical analysis, the group with OSA syndrome and the group without OSA syndrome. There was a predominance of men [81%of men vs 55.5 of women had OSA]. Age was higher in the group with OSA syndrome [56.8 years +/- 10vs 48.1 +1-12, P=0.04]. Clinical symptoms such as snoring, daytime sleepiness, nocturnal awakening and respiratory pauses were more frequent in the group with OSA syndrome. Morphological abnormalities such as retrognathy and/or short neck were significantly more frequent in the group with OSA syndrome [p=0.05 and 0.02 respectively]. Cardiopathies and diabetes were more frequent in obese with OSA syndrome. In obese persons, male gender, comorbidities and diabetes clinical symptoms such as snoring, daytime sleepiness, nocturnal awakening and respiratory pauses, retrognathy and/or short neck are predictive of OSA syndrome. So, we propose a nocturnal recording in obese presenting at least one of these predictive factors