Reference values for mean overnight saturation in sleep apnoea – the European Sleep Apnoea Database (ESADA)

Introduction: Normative values for mean overnight oxygen saturation during sleep in apnoea patients stratified for age, BMI, and sleep apnoea severity are lacking. Aim: To establish reference intervals for overnight mean saturation in a large sleep apnoea patient cohort. Methods: Mean overnight oxygen saturation was analysed in adult patients (n=23,220) from the European Sleep Apnoea Database (ESADA, 30 sleep centres, 18 European countries). Data were classified according to age, gender, BMI ( Results: Mean overnight saturation was 93.0% (95% confidence interval (CI) 92.9 to 93.1%). Age influenced the adjusted mean nocturnal saturation (93.6%, 93.2%, 92.9%, 92.5%, 92.2% and 91.9% for those aged 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and ≥70 years, respectively) p Conclusion: This study in a large, multi-centric European sleep apnoea cohort defined reference intervals for mean overnight saturation stratified for important confounders like age, BMI, and smoking. Our findings are applicable to the general practice of sleep medicine.