Hematological parameters as predictors of OSA severity

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common disease that has a prevalence of 6 to 13% of the adult population. It is characterized by recurrent obstruction partial or total upper airway and subsequent paroxysmal nocturnal hypoxia, leading to intermittent arousals from sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness. This work aimed to evaluate the relationship between the hematological parameters in CBC with differential as a new biomarker showing systemic inflammation and as an indicator of OSAS severity. This retrospective cross-sectional analysis included 100 subjects with OSA from those attending Chest departments in Benha University Hospital from 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023 period. All patients were subjected to full history taking and clinical examination, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray posteroanterior view, full night of polysomnography, and complete blood count with differential. There was a statistically significant difference between mild; moderate and severe OSA patients regarding platelets to lymphocyte ratio. A statistically significant difference between mild and severe OSA regarding neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was found. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between OSA severity and platelet level, N/L, and P/L ratio. The hematological indices including neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and platelet to lymphocyte ratio could be alternatives to expensive time-consuming biochemical markers to evaluate the inflammation and severity in the OSAS population.