Value Of Epworth Sleepiness Scale In Assessment The Degree Of Sleep Disordered Breathing

Objective To study the value of Epworth sleepiness scale in assessment of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) severity. Methods The polysomnography (PSG) data of 66 suspected OSAHS patients from May 2007 to Decenber 2007 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 59 male and 7 female,and their age ranged from 18 to 68 years ( mean 40.36,standard deviation 8.5 ). OSAHS was diagnosed in 58 and simple snorer was diagnosed in 8 patients by PSG..Analosising the relationgship of the ESS and AHI ,LAST . Results Of the all 66 patients, the mean of the height was 171.72,standard deviation was 6.88( range 155.0 to 184.0 cm ), the mean of the weight was 83.15,standard deviation was 14.47( range 47.0 to 118.0 kg ), the mean of body mass index was 28.14,standard deviation was 3.77 (range 18.31 to 37.76 kg/m2 ), the mean of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was 52.4,standard deviation was 30.26 ( range 1.8 to 106.8 ), the mean of lowest arterial oxygen saturation (LAST) was 66.5,standard deviation was 16.88 (range 31 to 91% ), the mean of ESS was 7.5,standard deviation was 4.47(range 0 to 21).The mean of ESS in mild OSAHS group was higher than simple snorer group, the mean of ESS in moderate OSAHS group was higher than mild OSAHS group, but the mean of severe OSAHS group was lower than moderate OSAHS group, difference was found among the simple snorer, mild, moderate and severe OSAHS group. The mean of ESS in no, mild, moderate and severe hypoxemia group was higher and higher, difference was found among the no hypoxemia, mild, moderate and severe hypoxemia group. The correlation coefficients of the ESS and AHI, LAST was 0.519 and -0.470 respectively. The correlation was not high. Conclusions The Epworth sleepiness scale has value in assessment of OSAHS severity.