Association of Lipid Profile with Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke

Abstract

Background: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and hyperlipidemia belong to known stroke risk factors. There is an increasing evidence that chronic intermittent hypoxia is independently associated with dyslipidemia. However, the clinical evidence linking SDB with dyslipidemia is poorly described. In this study, we aimed to find possible association between lipoprotein levels and sleep apnea parameters in acute ischemic stroke patients.Methods: 90 patients with acute cerebral ischemia were prospectively enrolled. Blood samples were obtained in a fasting condition within 24 hours after the stroke onset for the analysis of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides (TG). SDB was assessed using standard overnight polysomnography.Results: SDB was present in 50%, hypercholesterolemia in 52.2%, and hypertriglyceridemia in 20% of the subjects. In linear regression analysis, apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) was the only independent variable significantly associated with LDL levels (β = 0.220, P = 0.04) and TC (β = 0.240, P = .02). Likewise, AHI (β = 0.258, P = .01) with diastolic blood pressure (β = 0.204, P = .05) were the only predictors of cholesterol ratio (TC/HDL) in linear regression analysis. We failed to find any significant association of sleep apnea parameters with the levels of TG and HDL in the regression analyses.Conclusion: The results of our study suggest no significant association of sleep apnea parameters with TG and HDL. However, AHI was significantly associated with TC, LDL, and cholesterol ratio in patients with acute ischemic stroke.