An easy maneuver to screen for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep spnea: the Simmons Chin Press and Tongue Curl

Abstract

Objectives:: To demonstrate that the Simmons chin press and tongue curl (SCPTC) correlates with diagnosis of moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (msOSA) by itself as well as irrespective of the presence of other associated features. Material and Methods:: A consecutive sample of 1,911 sleep studies performed on adult patients from 2/8/2017 to 3/5/2019 was analyzed. The SCPTC exam maneuver was performed on each patient, followed by home sleep apnea testing or in-laboratory polysomnography. The AASM hypopnea 1B 4% desaturation criteria were utilized for scoring to correlate results to existing literature on morbidity and mortality. A chi-squared using low and high SCPTC score was performed for the outcome of msOSA. Known significant predictors of OSA were dichotomized for comparison and a multiple logistic regression was performed. Results:: 1,708 patients qualified for inclusion: 902 males (52.8%) and 806 females (47.2%) with a mean age of 49.4 and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 28.6. A high SCPTC score correlated with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.49 (95% CI: 2.03-3.04, p<0.001) for msOSA. A multiple logistic regression analysis including other risk factors for msOSA demonstrated that high SCPTC scores had an odds ratio for msOSA of 1.77 (95% CI: 1.40-2.23; p<0.001). Conclusion:: The SCPTC is a reproducible physical exam feature that can be utilized by healthcare providers to screen for patients with msOSA.

Keywords

• sleep apnea
• obstructive
• physical examination
• diagnostic techniques
• respiratory system
• otological
• neurological