Echocardiographic abnormalities in patients with sleep apnea syndrome

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep disease. It is associated not only with hypertension but also with other cardiac complications. Thus, the early detection of cardiac disorders is very useful. Objectives: We sought to evaluate different echocardiographic parameters. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 55 patients with OSA. The patients were divided into three groups: mild, moderate, and severe according to the apnea hypopnea index (AHI) and all underwent echocardiography. Analysis was done by SPSS 18 as well as the chi-squared and one-way ANOVA tests. Results: The mean age of the study population was 51.16 ± 12.88 years old and 36 (65.5%) patients were male. Right Tei index mean was 0.383 ± 0.213, which was abnormal in 19.1% of the patients. Left Tei index mean was 0.378 ± 0.230 and was abnormal in 52.9% of the patients. Pulmonary artery pressure mean was 18.32 ± 8.91 and was normal in 39 (70.9%) patients. Only basal septum strain (P = 0.015) and basal septum strain rate (P = 0.005) changes were associated with OSA severity. Conclusions: The main findings of this study were relative left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction as well as dysfunction in some parameters of the right ventricle. The prevalence of these disorders and what constitutes the best echocardiographic parameter for their diagnosis are controversial and require further research.