Prevalence and Genetic Association of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Abstract

Multiple interacting genetic and environmental factors have been newlineattributed to the cause of OSAS which is also found to be associated with newlinecraniofacial morphology, obesity, control of respiration as well as the newlinemuscular and connective tissue factors. Along with propensity to male newlinegender, obesity is also an important risk factor of OSA in adults and is most newlinecommonly marked as an increased BMI. However, the nature of causal newlinepathways linking relation between BMI and AHI still remains uncertain. In newlineboth non-twin family and twin studies it was found that a genetic association newlineexists in case of snoring and OSAS. But the scientific literature is devoid of newlinemolecular genetics of OSAS which have gained very little attention. Hence newlinethere is need to establish the genetic association of Obstructive sleep apnea newline(OSA). According to global epidemiology, around 2% of middle-aged women newlineand 4% of middle aged men are affected by OSAS. Studies show that males newlineare 2 to 3 times more affected than females. Most of the cases are newlineundiagnosed and underestimated due to lack of awareness. These newlineUndiagnosed OSAS comprise of a large frequency and are associated with newlineconsiderable increase in cardiovascular morbidity. In India there is a very few newlinepublished data about the prevalence of OSAS in India. Therefore it is newlinerequired to evaluate the prevalence of OSAS and to find out the difference in newlineprevalence in male and female gender, to rule out the undiagnosed cases. newlineTill date molecular genetics of OSAS has remained unexplored, so there is a newlineneed to establish the genetic association of OSAS to make a step towards newlineestablishing the etiology of the obstructive sleep apnea. newline