Association of Sleep-disordered Breathing and the Occurrence of Stroke

To determine whether sleep-disordered breathing increases the risk for stroke.

We performed cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses on 1,475 and 1,189 subjects, respectively, from the general population. Sleep-disordered breathing was defined by the apnea-hypopnea index (frequency of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep) obtained by attended polysomnography. The protocol, including polysomnography, risk factors for stroke, and a history of physician-diagnosed stroke, was repeated at 4-yr intervals. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the cross-sectional analysis, subjects with an apnea-hypopnea index of 20 or greater had increased odds for stroke (odds ratio, 4.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-14.24; p = 0.02) compared with those without sleep-disordered breathing (apnea-hypopnea index,