[Evaluation of an anamnesis questionnaire for the diagnosis of sleep apnea in patients with chronic diseases of the respiratory organs].

In a Rehabilitation Clinic for Diseases of the Respiratory Organs we examined 497 male patients aged 45.9 +/- 11.1 years with a relative weight of 109 +/- 16.7% who were suffering from chronic diseases of the respiratory tract (66.2% chronic bronchitis, 33.8% asthma bronchiale, 49.6% obstruction of the respiratory tract). They were subjected to a detailed physical examination and were given an anamnestic questionnaire for the purpose of diagnosing sleep-related respiratory disturbances (Siegrist et al., 1987). In addition, whole body plethysmography was performed in all patients as well as a pulse-oximetric examination during night sleep. Using factor analysis, it was possible to extract 5 factors from the 23 items of the anamnesis questionnaire. With these 5 factors, 60.5% of the total variance could be explained. These factors describe: 1. Dyspnoea (35.3%); 2. Vigilance (8.5%); 3. Sleep disturbances (6.3%); 4. Headache (5.8%) and 5. Snoring (4.7%). Different factor patterns are seen for different groups of patients. In patients suspected of an obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, however, it will always be necessary to perform further stage-wise diagnosis to safeguard the diagnosis.