Temporal Association Between Respiratory Events and Reflux in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea and...

The aim of the current study was to test the hypothesis that there is a temporal correlation between reflux episodes and respiratory events in patients with laryngopharyngeal reflux and obstructive sleep apnea.

Adults with clinically diagnosed laryngopharyngeal reflux confirmed by two validated instruments (reflux symptom index ≥ 13 and reflux finding score ≥ 7) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) underwent full polysomnography with concomitant and synchronized multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH esophageal monitoring. The apnea-hypopnea and arousal indexes that occurred 15, 30, and 45 minutes before and after each reflux episode were recorded and compared to full-night apnea and hypopnea and arousal index.

We studied 27 patients (14 males, age 51.7 ± 9.1 years, body mass index 32.4 ± 4.2 kg/m²) with laryngopharyngeal reflux (reflux symptom index 16 ± 2 and reflux finding score 12 ± 3) and OSA (apnea-hypopnea index = 32.3 ± 28.4 events/h). We evaluated 102 reflux episodes. Almost half of the reflux episodes occurred while awake (43.1%) and only five reflux episodes (4.9%) occurred during an obstructive respiratory event. The apnea and hypopnea and arousal indexes 15, 30, and 45 minutes before and after reflux episodes were lower than full-night apnea and hypopnea and arousal indexes, respectively.

Among patients with well-established laryngopharyngeal reflux and OSA, there is no temporal association between reflux and obstructive respiratory events. Even though the data comprised a small sample size, it seems that a more complex mechanism is involved with these two highly prevalent diseases.