Acute Stroke Patients with Sleep Apnea Acording to the Disability and Incidence of Relapse

BACKGROUND: Sleep is a complex process involving the interactions of several brain regions, which play a key role in regulating the sleep process, particularly the brainstem, thalamus, and anterior basal brain regions. The process of sleep is accompanied by a change in body functions, as well as a change in cerebral electrical activity, which is under the control of the autonomic nervous system. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to analyze the frequency of stroke recurrence and disability of patients with stroke and apnea. METHODS: It was analyzed 110 acute stroke patients with sleep apnea. All patients were evaluated with: Glasgow scale, The American National Institutes of Health Scale Assessment, Mini Mental Test, The Sleep and snoring Questionnaire Test, The Berlin Questionnaire Test, The Epworth Sleepiness Scale, The Stanford Sleepiness Scale, and The general sleep questionnaire. RESULTS: The largest number of patients with apnea on admission had a degree of disability of 4, and on discharge of 1. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean values of incapacity for admission and discharge. The student’s t - test did not determine a statistically significant difference in disability according to the Rankin scale between patients with and without apnea at admission (t = 0.059, p = 0.95) and discharge (t = 0.71, p = 0.48). According to the NIHS scale, patients of both sexes with apnea had a neurological deficit of 7.55 ± 5.22 on admission and 7.1 ± 4.3 without apnea. Statistically significant difference was not found on the neurological deficit of both sexes, with and without apnea, at admission and discharge. With apnea, there were 13 relapses of stroke during one year, and without apnea in only 3 patients. CONCLUSION: Patients with acute stroke have a significantly higher correlation rate according to sleep apnea. There is no significant correlation in the degree of disability between patients with and without apnea.