PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Emmanouel Alexopoulos
AU  - Vasiliki Varlami
AU  - Georgia Malakasioti
AU  - George Haritos
AU  - Konstantinos Gourgoulianis
AU  - Athanasios Kaditis
TI  - Atopy does not modulate tonsillar size and severity of obstructive sleep apnea in children with snoring
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P1142
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1142.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1142.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - Objective: Viral respiratory infections, asthma and atopy have been implicated in the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in childhood. However, the role of atopy is controversial. In the present study, it was hypothesized that atopy as expressed by physician-diagnosed eczema increases the risk for tonsillar hypertrophy and moderate-to-severe OSA (apnea-hypopnea index-AHI>5 episodes/h) among children with snoring referred for polysomnography. Methods: Data of children with snoring who were referred for a sleep study by primary care physicians were reviewed. Results: Data of 827 children with mean age (± standard deviation) 6.3 (± 2.5) years and median AHI (10th-90th percentiles) 2.2 episodes/h (0.5-9.5 episodes/h) were analyzed. Of all 831 subjects, 134 (16.2%) had physician-diagnosed eczema, 213 (25.8%) were obese, 582 (70.4%) had tonsillar hypertrophy and 182 (22%) had moderate-to-severe OSA. Physician-diagnosed eczema was not associated with presence of tonsillar hypertrophy after adjustment for gender and age [adjusted OR = 0.95 (0.63-1.43); P=0.79]. Similarly, eczema was not associated with presence of moderate-to-severe OSA after adjustment for tonsillar hypertrophy, obesity, gender and age [adjusted OR = 1.16 (0.74-1.81); P=0.53]. Conclusions: Among children with snoring, atopy expressed as physician-diagnosed eczema is not a risk factor for tonsillar hypertrophy and it is not associated with OSA severity.