Sleep pattern changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Background There are many cardiorespiratory changes that can occur during sleep and the study of sleep patterns during sleep is important to detect abnormality and how to avoid these problems during sleep. Aim The aim was to study the sleep pattern changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Patients and methods The study was conducted at the Chest Department in Sayed Galal, Al Azhar University on 45 individuals during the period from October 2016 to December 2017, who were divided into two groups: the first is the study group that included 30 patients with mild to moderate COPD according to GOLD's 2017 classification (based on post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume 1) in patients and the second group is the control group which included 15 healthy volunteer individuals. All individuals including diseased group 1 and control group 2 were admitted in the Chest Department and all underwent the following; history taking, general and local chest examination, BMI calculations, plain chest radiography posteroanterior view, ECG, arterial blood gases, pulmonary function test, complete overnight polysomnography. All individuals were asked to sign a written informed consent that proves their acceptance of joining the study. Results In comparison between COPD patients and the control cases there is a significance between them in hypopnea numbers P=0.019, in apnea/hypopnea numbers P=0.019, and in apnea/hypopnea index where P value less than 0.001 and in a snoring index where P=0.009, but there is no significance between them in apnea numbers where P=0.537 and in sleep efficiency where P=0.079. Conclusion The present study concludes that there is a change in sleep pattern between mild to moderate COPD patients and normal individuals.