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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci 2021; 14(S 02): 185-188
DOI: 10.5935/1984-0063.20200092
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

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

Gerard Joseph Meskill
1   Tricoastal Narcolepsy and Sleep Disorders Center, Sleep Medicine - Pearland - Texas - United States.
2   Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Associates, Sleep Medicine - Houston - Texas - United States.
,
Kelly Kincheloe
2   Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Associates, Sleep Medicine - Houston - Texas - United States.
,
Jerald Howard Simmons
2   Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Associates, Sleep Medicine - Houston - Texas - United States.
,
Sarah Dennis Meskill
3   Baylor College of Medicine, Pediatric Emergency Medicine - Houston - Texas - United States.
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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.

Sleep Apnea - Obstructive - Physical Examination - Diagnostic Techniques - Respiratory System - Otological - Neurological

Author declarations

The authors have received no financial support for this manuscript. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The study was performed at Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Associates (Houston, Sugar Land, The Woodlands, and Austin, TX).


Informed consent

This study received IRB exemption. Therefore, no informed consent was required.




Publication History

Received: 24 July 2020

Accepted: 08 January 2021

Article published online:
30 November 2023

© 2023. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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