Abstract Background/Aims Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has been linked to metabolic and musculoskeletal alterations, but its relationship with sarcopenia remains unclear. This study aimed to compare sarcopenia prevalence between patients with OSAS and healthy controls. Methods A total of 208 participants (104 patients and 104 age- and gender-matched controls) were included. Demographic and clinical characteristics, anterior thigh muscle thickness (MT), grip strength, chair stand test (CST), and sonographic thigh adjustment ratio (STAR) values were evaluated. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to ISarcoPRM criteria. Results The groups were similar regarding age, gender, body mass index, physical activity, smoking, diabetes mellitus and hypertension (all p 0.05). Patients with OSAS had lower anterior thigh MT (31.7±7.7 vs. 37.8±9.1 mm) and STAR values (0.93±0.28 vs. 1.16±0.33), but better CST performance (8.8±3.7 vs. 12.4±5.0 sec)(all p 0.001). Grip strength was higher in patients (30.9±9.7 vs. 28.0±9.7 kg)(p = 0.032). The overall prevalence of sarcopenia did not differ between groups (26.0% vs. 21.2%, p 0.05). Gender-specific subgroup analysis revealed that although no difference was observed among females (p 0.05), the prevalence of sarcopenia in males with OSAS was twice as high as in male controls (28.1% vs. 14.0%), showing a borderline statistical significance (p = 0.066). Conclusion Although OSAS patients demonstrated reduced muscle thickness, the overall prevalence of sarcopenia was comparable to controls. The trend toward higher sarcopenia frequency in male patients suggests a possible sex-specific vulnerability. These findings indicate that OSAS may adversely affect muscle quality and function, warranting further longitudinal and mechanistic studies with larger sample size. Disclosure D. Shehab: None. K. Al Jarallah: None. M. Abdulsalam: None. A.J. Abdulsalam: None.
Shehab et al. (Wed,) studied this question.