Polysomnography (PSG) conducted in a fully-equipped sleep laboratory is considered as the golden standard for the diagnosis of sleep apnea syndrome (SAS), yet it is time consuming and expensive. Since daytime sleepiness or lack of energy are among the symptoms of SAS, several questionnaires have been employed to reveal the degree of sleepiness and to help diagnosing SAS without performing a PSG, such as the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), STOP-Bang score and the Berlin Questionnaire. The current study results, which have investigated the correlations between ESS and SAS are contradictory. Therefore, we aimed to question the relevance of this correlation in our patient cohort. In our study, the clinical data of 258 SAS patients were analyzed in a retrospective fashion. Among the investigated cases, 218 (84%) were male and 40 (16%) were female. Our findings confirm a lack of correlation between ESS and SAS (p=0.7, r=0.02, Pearson). ESS is the most widely used subjective test for determining the daytime sleepiness; yet, inter-individual variations complicate its utility in the diagnosis of sleep apnea.
Keywords: Sleep apnea; Epworth Sleepiness Scale, ESS
