PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mafalda van Zeller
AU  - Marta Drummond
AU  - João Almeida
AU  - João Carlos Winck
TI  - Clinical use of the fatigue severity scale on obstructive sleep apnoea patients
DP  - 2013 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P2035
VI  - 42
IP  - Suppl 57
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2035.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2035.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2013 Sep 01; 42
AB  - Introduction-Current obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) definition includes daytime fatigue as a relevant symptom. The use of scales might be of help characterizing these subjective symptom allowing quantification and standardization as well as evaluation of treatment response.Aim-To evaluate the relation between fatigue scores and apnoea-hypopnoea índex(AHI) and the impact of APAP treatment in that symptom.Methods-All patients with suspected OSA referred to our center between Feb-Mar 2012 were considered eligible. During first the appointment patients completed Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and Epworth Severity Scale (ESS) questionnaires, clinical history was collected and a polygraphic cardiorespiratory sleep study performed.If patients were started on APAP treatment with good compliance (>70%/days, >4hours/night) after 3 months of treatment the FSS and ESS questionnaires were repeated.Results-88 patients were included, 71.6% were male, with a mean age of 51.9±13.4 years. Mean values of FSS and ESS questionnaires were 34.64±14.5 and 8.47±5.0, respectively.In 24 (27.3%) patients OSA was excluded, OSA was diagnosed in 64 patients being mild in 25 patients (28.6%), moderate in 20 (22.7%) and severe in 19 (21.6%) patients. A statistically significant correlation was found between FSS score and AHI (r-0.263; p=0.05). Those patients with confirmed OSA but without excessive daytime sleepiness (ESS<10) (n=44), 43.2% had FSS>36. After 3 months of adequate APAP therapy (n=27) a significant reduction of FSS (p=0.004) and ESS (p=0.035) scores was found.Conclusion-The Portuguese version of the Fatigue Severity Scale seems to be helpful evaluating symptoms related to OSA, specially monitoring the impact of APAP treatment.