RESUMEN
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Respiratory scoring guidelines for children and adults have been used for evaluating adolescents both in the 2007 and 2012 American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) scoring manuals. We compared the scoring methods of polysomnography used in these scoring manuals, where pediatric and adult scoring rules were adopted for the diagnosis of sleep apnea in adolescents. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: 106 Korean subjects aged between 13 and 18 years were enrolled. All subjects underwent overnight polysomnography in a sleep laboratory. Data were scored according to both pediatric and adult guidelines in the 2007 and 2012 AASM scoring manuals. RESULTS: Both pediatric and adult apnea hypopnea index (AHI) using the 2012 method were significantly higher than those using the 2007 method. The difference in AHI compared between pediatric and adult scores with the 2012 AASM scoring system was markedly decreased from that with the 2007 method. There was a significant discordance in sleep apnea diagnosis between pediatric and adult scoring rules in the 2012 method. CONCLUSION: Both pediatric and adult rules were used for the diagnosis of adolescent sleep apnea in the 2012 method. However, there was significant discordance in the diagnosis between pediatric and adult scoring guidelines in the 2012 AASM manual, probably due to different cut-off values of AHI for the diagnosis of sleep apnea in pediatric (≥1) and adult (≥5) patients. Further studies are needed to determine a more reasonable cut-off value for the diagnosis of sleep apnea in adolescents.