[Value of hypoxic burden in evaluating the impairments of organ systems in obstructive sleep apnea]

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep-disordered-breathing with decreased or even suspended ventilation due to upper airway obstruction, which is characterized by intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. OSA can damage a variety of organ systems, especially the cardiovascular system, seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. Therefore, more attention is paid to the precise assessment of the impairments of the organ systems caused by OSA and the evaluation of indicators, in order to carry out preventive measures as soon as possible. However, due to the limitations of traditional indicators such as apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in assessing the severity of disease, it is necessary to explore other alternative indicators to obtain multi-dimensional characteristics of OSA. A promising parameter, hypoxic burden (HB) can better quantify the severity of OSA and capture the disease load of OSA. This review mainly focused on the basic concept, main features, calculating method of HB and its clinical significance in predicting the adverse consequences of OSA, aiming at a better management of patients with OSA.