Study of inflammatory factors in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome

OBJECTIVE To investigate the levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-α), Interleukin-6(IL-6), and Interleukin-8(IL-8) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome(OSAHS ) before and after operation, and to evaluate the effect of surgical treatment on the levels of these inflammatory factors. METHODS Sixty severe OSAHS patients underwent uvulopalatopharyngoplasty were selected as OSAHS group and matched for age, sex, BMI to 22 health persons as control group. Serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 were measured by chromatography and radioimmunoassay methods before and 6 months after operation. RESULTS The serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 in OSAHS group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P0.01), and the levels in OSAHS group 6 months after operation were significantly lower than those before operation (P0.01). CONCLUSION Serum levels of inflammatory factors in OSAHS patients were out of balance. This might be related to the apnea and hypoxemia occurred repeatedly during nighttime. Effective operation could make the inflammatory factors trend to balance.