Performance of the STOP-Bang in the Detection of OSA, a Brazilian study

Assess the performance of the Stop-Bang questionnaire in Brazilian patients for the screening of OSA.

A cross-sectional study with historical and consecutive analysis of all patients who underwent polysomnography tests in the Sleeping Sector of the Ear, Nose, and Throat, and Cardiopulmonary (LabSono) Departments of the Gaffrée and Guinle University Hospital (HUGG), from 10/17/2011 to 04/16/2015. The variables relating to the SB questionnaire were collected by direct research from the medical records of patients.

In a series of 83 patients, we found that our sample were similar to other studies conducted in specialized centers of Sleep Medicine, and the population presented characteristics similar to those found by studies in Latin America. Men and women only behaved similarly in relation to the presence of Observed Apnea and body mass index, with a predominance of women who had systemic hypertension over men. In our study, the discriminatory value of 4 or more positive answers to the questionnaire had the best performance in identifying patients with an hourly Apnea-Hypopnea Index greater than 15/h, with a sensitivity of 72.97% (55.9% - 86.2%) and specificity of 67.39% (52.0% - 80.5%).

The Stop-Bang questionnaire proved to be, in our sample, a good screening instrument for diagnosing OSA Syndrome.