Association of irritable bowel syndrome and sleep apnea in patients referred to sleep laboratory

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is assumed as one of the most frequent gastrointestinal disorders, which decreases the patient's quality of life. IBS pathogenesis, however, is not clearly defined. It seems that sleep apnea induces or escalates IBS clinical symptoms. This study aims a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Farzin Ghiasi, Babak Amra, Vahid Sebghatollahi, Fatemeh Azimian
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2017-01-01
Series:Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.jmsjournal.net/article.asp?issn=1735-1995;year=2017;volume=22;issue=1;spage=72;epage=72;aulast=Ghiasi
Description
Summary:Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is assumed as one of the most frequent gastrointestinal disorders, which decreases the patient's quality of life. IBS pathogenesis, however, is not clearly defined. It seems that sleep apnea induces or escalates IBS clinical symptoms. This study aims at evaluating of IBS prevalence in patients, who are afflicted or are not afflicted with sleep apnea. Materials and Methods: This was a case–control study, which was implemented in a sleep laboratory located in Isfahan, Iran. We recruited 200 patients being more than 15 years from 2014 to 2015. Based on the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI), we recruited 100 patients in each of two groups: negative sleep apnea (NSA) (AHI ≤4) and positive sleep apnea (PSA) (AHI >4). IBS was diagnosed through a Rome III diagnostic questionnaire. Results: Overall, the prevalence of IBS among patients referred to sleep laboratory was 17.6%. Indeed, IBS prevalence in NSA and PSA groups were 8.2% and 27.1%, respectively. Furthermore, odds ratio of IBS in PSA group versus NSA was 3.92 (95% confidence interval = 1.58–9.77, P = 0.003). Our results showed that the prevalence of IBS did not differ significantly between various severity of sleep apnea (P = 0.452). Conclusion: This study showed that there was a positive association between sleep apnea and IBS.
ISSN:1735-1995
1735-7136