The Place of Polysomnography in Internal Medicine (Congress Paper) (Disease/Disorder Overview) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Epidemiological studies provide strong evidence that sleep disorders, especially obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), are highly prevalent in patients with obesity (1,2), diabetes mellitus (3,4,5), arterial hypertension (6,7), metabolic syndrome (8), cardiovascular disease (9,10,11,12) and endocrinopathies (3,13). Often, patients with sleep disorders suffer from sleepiness during the daytime, but other symptoms can be present as well, while others remain asymptomatic. On the other hand, patients in internal medicine often express fatigue, tiredness, or lack of energy rather than sleepiness itself, which can be related to the medical disorder, but can also be the cardinal symptoms of an underlying sleep disturbance (4, 15, 16, 17). These symptoms, however, can be caused by many different sleep disorders, and hence adequate work-up is mandatory. Their negative effects are more frequent, rapid and intensive if patients suffering from medical disorders also suffer from OSA. Due to this coincidence of OSA and disorders of other systems, their consequences are mutually increased (18).