Drug-induced sleep endoscopy-defined upper-airway collapse phenotypes and the presence of cardiometabolic comorbidity in adults with obstructive sleep apnea: A single-center retrospective cross-sectional study.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate whether upper-airway collapse phenotypes recorded during drug-induced sleep endoscopy were associated with the presence of cardiometabolic comorbidity in adults with polysomnography-confirmed obstructive sleep apnea.MethodsThis single-center retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed 360 drug-induced sleep endoscopy evaluation records from 355 adults. The primary outcome was at least one documented diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, or cerebrovascular disease. Baseline supine velum-oropharynx-tongue base-epiglottis severity was coded as grade 0, 1, or 2; site-level collapse was defined as grade ≥1. Logistic regression was adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, apnea-hypopnea index, all velum-oropharynx-tongue base-epiglottis sites, and complete concentric velum collapse. Sensitivity analyses examined severity, pattern, repeated identifiers, multiplicity, model fit, and incremental value.ResultsCardiometabolic comorbidity was present in 156/360 records (43.3%). Epiglottic collapse was less frequent with than without comorbidity (17.3% vs. 29.4%). In the primary model, epiglottic collapse showed a nominal inverse association (adjusted odds ratio = 0.55; 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.95; p = 0.031), but the Holm-adjusted p value across adjusted drug-induced sleep endoscopy predictors was 0.153. In exploratory sensitivity analyses, complete, but not partial, epiglottic collapse showed lower estimated odds (complete vs. none: adjusted odds ratio = 0.42; 95% confidence interval: 0.22-0.80; p = 0.008). The clinical model area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.675 vs. 0.694 after adding drug-induced sleep endoscopy variables; the likelihood-ratio test was not significant (p = 0.203).ConclusionsEpiglottic collapse showed an exploratory inverse cross-sectional association with documented cardiometabolic comorbidity. The association did not remain significant after multiplicity correction and should not be interpreted as protective, temporal, or predictive. Protocolized prospective validation is required.