Recent studies have shown that obstructive sleep apnea is associated not only with hyperglycemia but with actual diabetes-related endpoints, including diabetic kidney disease (DKD). On the other hand, although obstructive sleep apnea during rapid eye movement(REM) and non-REM sleep leads to different cardiometabolic and neurocognitive complications, whether REM-related obstructive sleep apnea is associated with DKD is not clear because all previous studies used home sleep apnea testing, which does not distinguish between REM- and non-REM–apnea-hypopnea index.
In this study, we showed that overall apnea-hypopnea index and REM–apnea-hypopnea index, but not non-REM–apnea-hypopnea index,were independently correlated with DKD after adjusting several known risk factors for DKD. Obstructive sleep apnea, especially during REM sleep, is a potential risk factor for DKD.
