engleski

Cognitive and psychomotor performance in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is sleep- related breathing disorder characterized by repetitive cessations of breathing during sleep. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), represented by the number of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep, is a measure used to indicate the severity of OSAS. In numerous studies, it has been shown that OSAS patients have poor cognitive outcomes in areas of general intellectual functioning, memory, attention and alertness. We hypothesize that Complex Reactionmeter Drenovac (CRD-series), a computerized psychodiagnostic test battery, can measure adverse effects of OSAS on cognitive functions. Our aim was to evaluate the influence of the OSAS on reaction time and information processing in solving simple and complex psychomotor and cognitive tasks of the CRD-series. A total of 204 male subjects were studied ; 102 of them had OSAS, diagnosed by the whole-night polysomnography, and 102 were control subjects with no recorded OSAS in their medical history, matched to OSAS subjects by age and BMI. Three representative tests from CRD-series were applied to measure solving simple arithmetic operations (CRD11), simple light signal position discrimination (CRD311), and complex psychomotor coordination (CRD411). Five parameters were recorded: total test solving time (TTST), minimum (best) single task solving time (MinT), median time for task solving (MedT), number of errors (Err), and average error time (ErrT). Subjects from OSAS group had longer TTST on CRD11 test compared to control group (186.0±67.03s vs. 174.44±65.27s, P=0.047). Moreover, OSAS group had longer MinT on CRD411 test in comparison to control group (0.68±0.23s vs. 0.63±0.14s, P=0.041). There were no significant differences in performance on CRD311 test between two groups. However, a positive correlation was found between AHI and MedT on CRD311 test in OSAS group (r=0.213, P=0.032). In conclusion, all cognitive and psychomotor performance tests used in this study showed reduced values in OSAS patients compared with matched controls. Solving simple and complex psychomotor and cognitive tasks of the CRD-series could be used in evaluation of cognitive impairment in OSAS patients.

cognitive; psychomotor; obstructive sleep apnea syndrome; CRD

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