Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome, which is characterized by snoring and nocturnal respiratory arrest, five times increases the risk of hospitalization and severe course of coronavirus infection. This is evidenced by the research data of Finnish scientists, which were at the disposal of Izvestia on October 13.
Scientists analyzed data from 305 patients infected with COVID-19. They found a link between the presence of this syndrome and the risk of hospitalization with coronavirus infection.
“We show that obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a risk factor for hospitalization with COVID-19 regardless of age, gender, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease (CHD), asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “, – said the scientists.
At the same time, according to them, the probability of hospitalization with COVID-19 infection in patients with OSAS is five times higher than in people without this pathology.
In such patients with apnea, systematic violations of blood oxygen saturation are observed, as well as chronic inflammation in the body, which increases the risk of thrombus formation and atherosclerosis.
“The results of the study indicate that when assessing patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection, OSAS should be recognized as one of the associated risk factors for the development of a severe form of the disease,” said Nikita Zhuravlev, employee of the Laboratory for Analysis of Population Health Indicators and Digitalization of Healthcare at MIPT.
Experts are confident that the reasons for the identified trends have yet to be established, but this condition must be taken into account by clinical specialists when predicting the development of COVID-19.
Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia: Dangerous snoring: apnea increases the risk of severe COVID course fivefold