Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Ischemic Stroke Etiology: Is There a Link?

The objective of this study is to evaluate the presence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and its potential association with subtypes of stroke according to the classification of the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST).  This cross-sectional study recruited 100 consecutive patients with a recent diagnosis of stroke or acute transient ischemic attack and evaluated the presence of OSA and its potential association with subtypes of TOAST.  The prevalence of OSA was 51%. The mean age was 68 ± 15 years. Patients with OSA (  = 51, 51%) presented higher frequency of diabetes and previous stroke/acute transient ischemic attack (39.2 versus 18.4%,  = 0.018) than patients without OSA. There was no association between the presence of OSA and the etiology of stroke/ acute transient ischemic attack according to the TOAST classification (  = 0.698).  Despite the biological plausibility of a positive association between the presence of OSA and TOAST classification, this hypothesis was not confirmed. This underscores that the subtype of stroke should not influence decisions about OSA screening.