Obstructive sleep apnoea in adults

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1165

Published 7 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1165
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1165

Practice

Easily Missed?

Obstructive sleep apnoea in adults

Sophie D West, consultant¹, Helen A McBeath, general practitioner², John R Stradling, professor¹

¹ Sleep Unit, Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LJ, ² St Clements Surgery, Oxford OX4 1JS

Correspondence to: S D West sophie@west66.freeserve.co.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 50 year old long distance lorry driver attendsfor a review of his heavy goods vehicle licence. His body massindex is 30, and he says his wife complains that he snores loudly.The history of loud snoring in this overweight man should raiseconcern about possible obstructive sleep apnoea. As he is alorry driver this diagnosis is particularly important.

Obstructive sleep apnoea is characterised by snoring, recurrentepisodes of upper airway obstruction during sleep (apnoeas andhypopnoeas), and arousals. The resulting sleep disturbance cancause excessive and disabling daytime sleepiness. The term obstructivesleep apnoea syndrome is used for people who have features ofobstructive sleep apnoea on a sleep study and also have resultingdaytime sleepiness.

Prevalence varies according to the populationstudied
In the US state of Wisconsin a cohort study of 30-60year old workers found that 24% of men and 9% of women . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Treat sleep apnoea before people fall asleep at the wheel: Nic Tweddell and Seb Schmoller
BMJ 2009 338: b1976. [Extract] [Full Text]

Education with an angle: Jane Smith
BMJ 2009 338: b1548. [Extract] [Full Text]

Related external webpages:

: Listen to BMJ podcast

This article has been cited by other articles:

Tweddell, N., Schmoller, S. (2009). Treat sleep apnoea before people fall asleep at the wheel. BMJ 338: b1976-b1976 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Even more likely, and even less detectable, in schizophrenics?: Zekria Ibrahimi
bmj.com, 5 May 2009 [Full text]
DVLA inaction is a key problem: Seb Schmoller, et al.
bmj.com, 7 May 2009 [Full text]
Role of the Ophthalmologist in Sleep Apnoea Syndrome: Anju Kadyan DMI, MS, FRCS (Ed), et al.
bmj.com, 18 May 2009 [Full text]