Abstract
Background: Liver cirrhosis is a major cause of mortality worldwide. One of the least studied complications of liver cirrhosis is the disturbed sleep pattern.
Methods: This study included two groups; the first group consisted of 30 patients diagnosed as liver cirrhosis based on abdominal ultrasound and liver biopsy and the second group consisted of 10 healthy subjects served as controls. Epworth sleepiness score (ESS) was calculated for every patient and all patients were subjected to complete overnight polysomnography to detect sleep disturbances among all participants.
Results: Our results showed that cirrhotic patients had ESS, AHI (apnea hypopnea index) and OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) significantly higher than the control group [16.4±2.6 vs 11.1±1.8, P = 0.0001; 10.9±8.5 vs 2.4±1.6, P = 0.005 and 3.1±3.1 vs 1.1±0.9, P = 0.03 respectively]. The percentage of sleep efficiency was significantly lower in cirrhotic patients than the control group [61.9±12.9 vs 73.1±7.6 (P = 0.02)]. Also, the percentages of S1, S3-4 and REM sleep in relation to the total sleep time were significantly higher in the cirrhotic patients than the control group (P = 0.01, 0.02 and 0.06 respectively) while the percentage of S2 was significantly lower (P = 0.02). Cirrhotic patients of Child class C had ESS, AHI and OSA significantly higher and sleep efficiency significantly lower than cirrhotic patients of classes A and B (P = 0.001 for all). Cirrhotic patients with tense ascites had ESS, AHI and OSA significantly higher and sleep efficiency lower than patients with mild, moderate, or no ascites (P = 0.001 for all).
Conclusion: This study revealed that cirrhotic patients had disturbed sleep pattern, correlating with the degree of cirrhosis.
- © 2012 ERS
