Obesity being identified as a common risk factor for sleep related breathing disorder, measuring certain physical parameters in obese patients help us in identifying Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) suspects at the earliest. The objective of this study is to find out the correlation of Body Mass Index (BMI) and Neck circumference (NC) with severity of AHI in patients with OSA.

Material & Methods: 50 consecutive patients suspected to have OSA, attending OPD were enrolled. BMI and NC recorded. AHI was calculated by over-night full polysomnography and correlation of severity of AHI with BMI and NC explored.

Results: Out of 50 cases analysed, 35 were men and mean (SD) age was 48.6± 6.2 years. 28%. 44% and 28% had mild, moderate and severe OSA respectively based on AHI values. 56% had BMI more than 30 and NC more than 40.2cm was seen in 38% patients.

Conclusion: BMI and NC had significant correlation with severity of AHI, p value being 0.010 and 0.001 respectively. NC had a stronger positive correlation with severity of OSA, when compared with BMI.

Keywords: OSA, BMI, Neck Circumference .

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Dr T. Bindu, MBBS, MD

Associate Professor Department of Respiratory Medicine,

Tagore Medical College and Hospital, Chennai-127, India

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Phone: 9445888767