Abstract
Background
Patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS), may have cognitive impairment, which usually is not diagnosed, affecting negatively their daily functioning. Aim of this study was to assess the scores of Addenbrooke (ACE-R), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), three diagnostic tools for detecting neuropsychological deficits, in patients with OSAHS.
Methods
Included were 101 patients with OSAHS, diagnosed with polysomnography, who visited the outpatient Sleep Clinic of the University General Hospital of Larissa and General Hospital “Evangelismos” of Athens and 40 normal controls of the general population. All participants filled the ACE-R, MoCA and MMSE scales.
Results
The majority of patients were males (52.5%), between the ages of 51–71 years (52.4%), secondary school graduates (53.5%). Apnea hypopnea index (AHI) was not correlated with any of the scales: MMSE (P=0.657), ACE-R (P=0.773), MoCA (P=0.465), while these 3 scales correlated well with each other.
Conclusions
Further research is necessary to evaluate the utility of ACE-R, MoCA and MMSE neuropsychological scales in assessing cognitive impairment of OSAHS patients.
Keywords: Obstructive sleep apnea, addenbrooke score, cognitive impairment assessment