Obstructive sleep apnea is a under-recognised systemic disorders affecting sleep and work performance. It is a independent risk factor for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, psychiatric disorder, myocardial infacrtion, cerebrovascular accidents, pulmonary hypertension, RTA. Gender differences exist in clinical profile and polysomnographic profile. Objective: To study gender differences in polysomnographic profile of patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Methodology: This study was conducted at Polysomnography laboratory at Dr S.C.G.M.C Nanded. We examined the influence of gender on the polysomnographic features of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in a study of 80 patients with OSA diagnosed by overnight polysomnography (PSG). The severity of OSA was determined from the apnea– hypopnea index (AHI) for total sleep time (AHI_TST). Differences in OSA during different stages of sleep were assessed by comparing the AHI during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) (AHI_NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) (AHI_REM) sleep and calculating the “REM difference” (AHI_REM− AHI_NREM). Additionally, each overnight polysomnographic study was classified as showing one of three mutually exclusive types of OSA: (1) mild OSA, which occurred predominantly during REM sleep (REM OSA); (2) OSA of any severity, which occurred predominantly in the supine position (S OSA); or (3) OSA without a predominance in a single sleep stage or body position (A OSA). Results: Polysomnographic profiles of male and female patients with Sleep Disordered Breathing was different. The mean AHI_TST for male was significantly higher than that for female (31.8 versus 20.2;p<0.05).Female had a lower AHI_NREM than did male (7.2 versus 16.72;p<0.05), but had a similar AHI_REM (14.6 versus 16.17). Female had a significantly higher REM difference than did males (7.3 versus 4.8;p<0.05),While on the other hand male had a significantly higher positional difference ( AHI_SUP-AHI_NONSUP) than male patients ( 19.50 versus 8.02;p<0.05).Mean Lowest Nocturnal Saturation(LNS) was significantly much lower in males. REM- Obstructive Sleep Apnea occurred in 60% of female and 20% of male patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. SUPINE- Obstructive Sleep Apnea was significantly more common in male patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea(28%) than female patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea(8%). Conclusion: We conclude that: (1) OSA is less severe in women because of milder OSA during NREM sleep; (2) women have a greater clustering of respiratory events during REM sleep than do men; (3) REM OSA is disproportionately more common in women than in men; and (4 ) S OSA is disproportionately more common in men than in women.

Keyword: Polysomnography, REM, NREM, OSA.