Prevalência dos fatores de risco para síndrome da apneia obstrutiva do sono em pacientes portadores de hipotireoidismo atendidos em ambulatório especializado.

Abstract

Hypothyroidism refers to any condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce or secrete sufficient amounts of thyroxine. This clinical condition, established and in the subclinical form, is related to several diseases and may give these worse prognosis. Among the conditions that may be associated with hypothyroidism, one that causes significant impairment in patients' quality of life is obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), which is related to increased daytime sleepiness, increased risk of occupational accidents and as well as increased cardiovascular risk and development of metabolic syndrome (MS) and diabetes mellitus (DM). The aim of this study is to verify the relationship between hypothyroidism and the increased risk of developing OSAS, and to determine the presence of risk factors for OSAS in hypothyroid patients treated at the endocrinology outpatient clinics of the University Hospital Alcides Carneiro (HUAC), from June 2019 to October 2019. This is an analytical observational cross-sectional study, in which 43 patients who attended consultations at the HUAC were asked to answer a questionnaire resulting from the combination of questions in the Berlin questionnaire and the STOP-Bang questionnaire, with subsequent determination of the risk of OSAS with the respective scales of each questionnaire. The subjects participated in the research by signing the Informed Consent Form (ICF). It was found that patients with hypothyroidism have an increased risk for OSAS compared to the general population, with a prevalence of 7% (n = 3) of high risk cases, 37.2% (n = 16) of intermediate risk and 55.8% (n = 24) of low risk by the Stop-Bang questionnaire score. The Berlin questionnaire score found 39.5% (n = 17) of high-risk cases and 60.5% (n = 26) of low-risk cases. Thus, 51.1% (n = 22) of respondents had some degree of increased risk for OSAS based on both questionnaires. Among the risk factors, those most related to the onset of OSAS were age, neck circumference, increased body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), daytime sleepiness, and snoring (numbers). It is concluded that there is a need for more studies, with more representative sample space and using polysomnography to increase the accuracy of the results, to establish more accurately the association of OSAS with other health conditions besides hypothyroidism, and thus assist in the treatment of this syndrome.