Liver functions in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Abstract

Objectives: Objective. Previous studies showed that obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) was associatedwith liver diseases such as elevated liver enzyme levels and hepatic steatosis. The aim of this study was toassess the relationship between serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT)levels and OSAS and its severity.Methods: A total of 617 patients who underwent PSG (polysomnography) between January 2016 and May2017 were evaluated in this study. AST, ALT, total cholesterol, triglyceride levels and body mass index wereanalyzed. The data were analyzed using the Student's t-test, ANOVA, Chi-square test, and Pearson's correlationcoefficient.Results: Five hundreds and thirty patients with OSAS and 60 healthy controls were included in the study. Ofthe patients in the OSAS group, 17.7% had an elevated ALT level and 7.9% had an elevated AST level. Therewas a statistically significant difference in ALT and AST levels between the OSAS and control groups (p