Background

Sleep apnea syndrome is a common co-morbidity in patients with chronic heart failure, worsening the prognosis. So, there is a need for a simple screening tool for an early diagnosis in this population.

Aim

This study aimed to investigate the predictive probabilities of STOP-bang questionnaire (SBQ) and Berlin questionnaire (BQ) in screening SAS among HF patients.

Method It was a cross-sectional study carried out at the department of pulmonology of ISF hospital from January to June 2022, including 80 patients with stable heart failure (HF). Polygraphy and echocardiography were performed for all patients. The diagnostic threshold of SAS was set at an. SAS was screened in all the participants using the SBQ and BQ. The two questionnaires' sensitivity, specificity, and area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) were calculated.

Results

SAS was diagnosed in 83% of heart failure patients. Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome was diagnosed in 69% of patients, and central sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome was diagnosed in 31% of them. The BQ had a sensitivity of 62% and a specificity of 57% to predict SAS. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 87.2%, and the negative predictive value was 75.7% (p= 0.18). The AUC was 0.6. The SBQ score had a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 31% for predicting SAS. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 93%, and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 31% (p=0.004) with an AUC of 0.7.

Conclusion

SBQ and BQ had a similar sensitivity. However, SBQ seems more efficient in detecting SAS in HF patients.