Cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between severity of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. We recruited 1185 patients with OSAS who underwent a complete ENT examination, including nasolaryngeal fibre optic endoscopy with Müller's manoeuvre, overnight cardio-respiratory monitoring, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) to measure daytime sleepiness, body mass index (BMI), measurement of blood pressure and blood tests.SUBSEQUENTLY, SUBJECTS WERE DIVIDED INTO THREE SUBGROUPS ACCORDING TO THE APNOEA HYPOPNOEA INDEX (AHI): mild OSAS (AHI 5-15), moderate OSAS (AHI 15-30) and severe OSAS (AHI > 30). In the sample collected, 347 (262 males and 85 females) of 1185 patients suffered from mild OSAS, 363 (269 males and 94 females) from moderate OSAS and 475 (330 males and 145 females) from severe OSAS. In the group suffering from mild OSAS, we found: 127 patients affected by hypertension, 48 with diabetes, 11 with dyslipidaemia and 32 with metabolic syndrome. In the group with moderate OSAS there were 157 patients with hypertension, 63 with diabetes, 72 with dyslipidaemia and 47 with metabolic syndrome. In the group suffering from severe OSAS there were 244 patients with hypertension, 138 with diabetes, 47 with dyslipidaemia and 90 with metabolic syndrome. For data analysis, we used the Spearman correlation test adjusted according to Sidak between the dependent variable AHI and the independent variables BMI, ESS, average SO2 (SO(2med)), hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia and metabolic syndrome. The results show different patterns of correlation in terms of statistical significance: BMI ρ(s) = 0.26, SO(2med) ρ(s) = -0:51, hypertension ρ(s) = -0.05, dyslipidaemia ρ(s) = 0.22 for women, and BMI ρ(s) = 0.53, ESS ρ(s) = 0.28, SO(2med) ρ(s) = -0.50, hypertension ρ(s) = 0.17, diabetes mellitus ρ(s) = 0.28 and metabolic syndrome ρ(s) = 0.26 for men. The results of the study confirm the existence of a statistically significant correlation between the severity of OSAS and BMI, ESS, average SO2, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia and metabolic syndrome.

Modern psychophysical tests to assess olfactory function.

The sense of smell significantly contributes to quality of life. In recent years much progress has been made in understanding the biochemistry, physiology and pathology of the human olfactory system. Olfactory disorders may arise not only from upper airway phlogosis but also from neurodegenerative disease. Hyposmia may precede motor signs in Parkinson's disease and cognitive deficit in Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest the complementary role of olfactory tests in the diagnosis and management of neurodegenerative diseases. In this report we present a review of modern olfactory tests and their clinical applications. Although rarely employed in routine clinical practice, the olfactory test evaluates the ability of odour identification and is a useful diagnostic tool for olfaction evaluation. Olfactory screening tests are also available. In this work we strongly recommend the importance of an ENT evaluation before the test administration and dissuade from a self-administration of an olfactory test.

Olfactory screening test in mild cognitive impairment.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transient status between physiologic ageing and dementia. Each year more than 12% of subjects with MCI develop Alzheimer's disease. This study evaluated the presence of an olfactory deficit in amnesic MCI (aMCI) patients. Twenty-nine patients diagnosed with aMCI and a homogeneous control group of 29 subjects were enrolled in the study. Olfactory function was assessed by the Sniffin' Sticks Screening Test (SSST) and the Mini Mental State Examination, the Clinical Dementia Rating, the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Mental Deterioration Battery were used to evaluate the neurocognitive status. aMCI patients showed a significant impairment of their olfactory identification compared to controls (SSST score: 8.3+/-2.1 vs. 10.8+/-0.9; p<0.001). These results suggest that olfactory tests should be part of the diagnostic armamentarium of pre-clinical dementia. A long-term follow up might confirm the olfactory identification function as an early and reliable marker in the diagnosis of pre-clinical dementia.

Olfactory screening test: experience in 102 Italian subjects.

Development of the olfactory screening test has given the physician a fast and easy instrument to assess olfactory function. This study evaluated the odour identifiability and familiarity of the 12 items of the Sniffin' Sticks Screening test in 102 normal Italian subjects (54 female, 48 male), age range 13-88 years (mean 46.4), classified as normosmics. The Sniffin' Sticks Screening test is an olfactory identification multiple-forced-choice test widely used in Europe. The Italian subjects showed a high familiarity for the odorants of the Sniffin' Sticks Screening test, except for cloves, even if 89.3% of the subjects correctly identified cloves in the multiple (four) choice of answers. On the basis of the results obtained, it is suggested that the Sniffin' Sticks Screening test should be used in routine clinical practice to assess olfactory function in the Italian population.