Circulating C-reactive protein levels in patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea
- S-Med
- May 7
- 1 min read
BMI, AHI, and female sex were independent predictors of CRP in this cohort of patients with suspected OSA. In addition, multiple measures of nocturnal hypoxemia were also predictors; these measures included hypoxemia burden (SpO2% mean and SpO2% nadir). Surprisingly, there was no significant association between spirometry variables (ie, FEV1) and CRP. We also examined whether the presence of concomitant OSA and COPD (OVS) was associated with increased inflammation and did not identify such a relationship. However, only a small proportion of the patients (9%) had OVS. This is the first study in a large cohort of patients to account for both PSG and spirometry measures to examine predictors of CRP.
Prior studies have described elevated levels of inflammatory biomarkers in the systemic circulation and respiratory tract of patients with OSA. The levels of CRP in these studies are comparable to levels associated with a high risk of future cardiovascular events in healthy people. Among patients with OSA, BMI, sex, and anatomic characteristics such as neck circumference have been shown to be determinants of inflammation, and the addition of CRP to these clinical variables improves the detection of cardiometabolic conditions. However, in contrast to previous findings, in our study the inclusion of CRP with patient characteristics (age, sex, BMI) did not increase the ability to detect hypertension, diabetes, and cardiac comorbidities in patients with OSA.
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