Use of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring for the Screening of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea ( OSA ) is a frequent and underdiagnosed disease in hypertensive individuals who experience cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to define the best model that combined the ambulatory blood pressure ( BP ) monitoring ( ABPM ), anthropometric, sociodemographic, and biological variables to identify moderate to severe OSA . A total of 105 ABPM ‐confirmed hypertensive patients were evaluated using their clinical histories, blood analyses, ABPM , and home respiratory polygraphic results. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the significant variables. The best model included sex, presence of obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m 2 and abdominal obesity), mean daytime BP , mean nocturnal heart rate, and minimal diastolic nighttime BP to achieve an area under the curve of 0.804. Based on this model, a validated scoring system was developed to identify the patients with an apnea‐hypopnea index ≥15. Therefore, in untreated hypertensive patients who snored, ABPM variables might be used to identify patients at risk for OSA .