These typical indicators of OSA risk in the general population are less useful in the poststroke population.
Are obesity and sleepiness — classic signs of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) — as frequent among patients with stroke as among the general community? To find out, researchers compared the degree of subjective sleepiness, measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and body-mass index (BMI) of 96 consecutive patients with stroke and no prior history of OSA and of 1093 community volunteers without histories of stroke (controls). All participants underwent polysomnography.
Patients with abnormal ESS scores in both samples were more likely than those with normal scores to have OSA, but this association was significant only among controls. Rates of obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) and pathologic subjective sleepiness (ESS score ≥11) were both more prev…