Validation of the NoSAS Score for the Screening of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in a Sleep Clinic

Abstract

Background. There is a growing number of patients with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) referred to sleep clinics. Therefore, a simple but useful screening tool is urgent. The NoSAS score, containing only five items, has been developed and validated in population-based studies. Aim. To evaluate the performance of the NoSAS score for the screening of SDB patients from a sleep clinic in China, and to compare the predictive value of the NoSAS score with the STOP-Bang questionnaire. Methods. We enrolled consecutive patients from a sleep clinic who had undergone apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) testing by type III portable monitor device at the hospital and completed the STOP-Bang questionnaire. The NoSAS score was assessed by reviewing medical records. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of both screening tools were calculated at different AHI cutoffs to compare the performance of SDB screening. Results. Of the 596 eligible patients (397 males and 199 female), 514 were diagnosed with SDB. When predicting overall (AHI ≥ 5), moderate-to-severe (AHI ≥ 15), and severe (AHI ≥ 30) SDB, the sensitivity and specificity of the NoSAS score were 71.2, 80.4, and 83.1% and 62.4, 49.3, and 40.7%, respectively. At all AHI cutoffs, the AUC ranged from 0.688 to 0.715 for the NoSAS score and from 0.663 to 0.693 for the STOP-Bang questionnaire. The NoSAS score had the largest AUC (0.715, 95% CI: 0.655–0.775) of diagnosing SDB at AHI cutoff of ≥5 events/h. NoSAS performed better in discriminating moderate-to-severe SDB than STOP-Bang with a marginally significantly higher AUC (0.697 vs. 0.663, P=0.046). Conclusion. The NoSAS score had good performance on the discrimination of SDB patients in sleep clinic and can be utilized as an effective screening tool in clinical practice.

Association of objective and subjective parameters of obstructive sleep apnea with plasma aldosterone concentration in 2,066 hypertensive and 25,368 general population

“…Although these questionnaires can diagnose sleep disordered breathing, an umbrella term with a prevalence of 24.0%–83.8% ( 48 – 51 ), OSA is the most frequent type ( 52 ). In addition, No-SAS score has shown high sensitivity and specificity for OSA screening, compared with polysomnography, and has been validated in a Chinese population ( 31 , 53 ). Moreover, it is not feasible to perform PSG in population-based studies due to its cost and technique dependence.…”

Poor sleep quality is negatively associated with low cognitive performance in general population independent of self-reported sleep disordered breathing

“…Current guidelines recommend polysomnography (PSG) as the gold standard for SDB assessment, which is an expensive time-consuming, labor-intensive, and technique dependent equipment, and inconvenient to be utilized in large scale population-based studies [ 22 ]. Nonetheless, NOSAS scale is a simple, efficient, and easy method for screening of self-reported SDB [ 23 ] and validated in some of Chinese population [ 24 , 25 ] with a high sensitivity and specificity.…”

Diagnostic performance of the STOP-Bang questionnaire as a screening tool for obstructive sleep apnea in different ethnic groups

“…A number of studies reported the diagnostic performance of the STOP-Bang questionnaire in different Asian ethnic groups using either the standard BMI (35 kg/m 2 ) or a lower BMI threshold. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] These studies followed younger patients, most of whom had been referred to sleep clinics. The diagnostic performance of the STOP-Bang questionnaire in the older surgical patients of the different Asian groups remained unknown.…”