Acute stroke and TIA patients have specific polygraphic features of obstructive sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with increased risk for stroke, which is known to further impair respiratory functions. However, it is unknown whether the type and severity of respiratory events are linked to stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Thus, we investigate whether the characteristics of individual respiratory events differ between patients experiencing TIA or acute ischemic stroke and matched patients with clinically suspected sleep-disordered breathing.

Polygraphic data of 77 in-patients with acute ischemic stroke (n = 49) or TIA (n = 28) were compared to age, gender, and BMI-matched patients with suspected sleep-disordered breathing and no cerebrovascular disease. Along with conventional diagnostic parameters (e.g., apnea-hypopnea index), durations and severities of individual apneas, hypopneas and desaturations were compared between the groups separately for ischemic stroke and TIA patients.

Stroke and TIA patients had significantly shorter apneas and hypopneas (p < 0.001) compared to matched reference patients. Furthermore, stroke patients had more central apnea events (p = 0.007) and a trend for higher apnea/hypopnea number ratios (p = 0.091). The prevalence of OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 5) was 90% in acute stroke patients and 79% in transient ischemic attack patients.

Stroke patients had different characteristics of respiratory events, i.e., their polygraphic phenotype of OSA differs compared to matched reference patients. The observed differences in polygraphic features might indicate that stroke and TIA patients suffer from OSA phenotype recently associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. Therefore, optimal diagnostics and treatment require routine OSA screening in patients with acute cerebrovascular disease, even without previous suspicion of OSA.