Prevalence of symptoms and risk of sleep apnea in patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysm

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of symptoms and risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) among patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysms.

METHODS: In this case-control study, a validated Arabic version of the Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) was administered to patients admitted to King Fahd Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with cerebral aneurysms between January 2006 and July 2011 (n=53). The same questionnaire was administered to a control group comprised of patients attending primary health care clinics who were matched for age, body mass index (BMI), and gender (n=212).

RESULTS: The mean age of patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysms was 50.7 +/- 15.2 years, and the mean BMI was 27.9 +/- 4.8 kg/m2. In this group, 75.5% complained of snoring compared with 46.7% of the controls (p=0.000). Hypertension was present in 67.9% of cases compared with 30.2% of the controls (p=0.000). Based on the BQ scores, 60.4% of the cases were considered to be at high risk for OSA compared with 31.6% of the controls (p=0.000).

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of OSA symptoms among patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysms is very high. Almost 60% of patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysms are at risk for OSA.