[Characteristics of sleep apnea syndrome in a cohort of patients with acromegaly]. / Caractéristiques du syndrome d'apnées du sommeil dans une cohorte de patients acromégales.

INTRODUCTION: Sleep apnoea syndrome (SAS) has a prevalence of between 40 and 80 % in patients with acromegaly. The objective of our study was to focus on the occurrence of SAS and its relation with acromegalic characteristics in this population as well as to study patients' comorbidities. METHODOLOGY: This study was retrospective, monocentric and related to a cohort of 106 acromegalic patients of whom 55 patients had performed ventilatory polygraphic recordings looking for SAS in addition to assessment of comorbidities. RESULTS: Within the screened patients, 42 had sleep apnoea syndrome with a majority of them having severe SAS. In this population, SAS was associated with hypertension, diabetes and a longer duration of acromegaly but acromegaly control was not a risk factor. Patients with severe SAS were older (mean 64 years) than the ones without SAS (47 years) (P=0.01). CONCLUSION: SAS prevalence is twenty times higher in the acromegalic population than for the normal population, even more so if patients are diabetic, hypertensive, older and if acromegaly has had a long evolution. Knowing this high prevalence, systematic screening for SAS may be justified in this population.

[Education of patients with sleep apnea syndrome: Feasibility of a phone coaching procedure. Phone-coaching and SAS]. / Faisabilité du "coaching" téléphonique dans l'appareillage du syndrome d'apnée du sommeil. Coaching téléphonique et SAS.

INTRODUCTION: The most commonly used treatment for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) is the application of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) during sleep. However compliance with this treatment is frequently below 70%. METHODS: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of an educational intervention (EI) delivered in phone calls made to OSA patients (n=66) treated with CPAP by a home care provider (SADIR). The educational intervention consisted of five sessions of telephone based counseling intervention by appropriately trained staff delivered on day 3, 10, 30, 60 and 90 after initiation of treatment. Secondary objectives were to compare, using a case-control design, CPAP compliance of OSA patients (n=133) with or without EI. RESULTS: Ninety-eight percent of patients accepted the intervention to participate in the study. Fifty-seven patients (86%) received the full intervention program and 44 patients (66%) strictly respected the pre-defined timings per protocol. A higher adherence to CPAP at six months was observed in the EI group compared to patient without EI (94% versus 81%) (P<0.05). CPAP compliance at three months was 54minutes higher in the EI group compared to the control group (4h39±2h17 and 3h45±2h45 respectively) but this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: An educational intervention dispensed by phone is applicable and would have an impact on CPAP compliance. Its efficacy on long-term compliance has to be confirmed in a larger group using a randomized procedure.