Sleep apnoea raises cardiac risk
The risk of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, is increased in men with severe obstructive sleep apnoea.
The risk of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, is increased in men with severe obstructive sleep apnoea, a condition in which airways become blocked during sleep and breathing stops for brief periods.
However, treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a device that delivers continuous pressurized air while the patient sleeps, seems to cut this risk.
To study the association between cardiac events and obstructive sleep apnoea, researchers from the Universitario Miguel Servet in Zaragoza, Spain, conducted a study involving healthy men and men with severe obstructive sleep apnoea or related conditions. The final analysis included 264 healthy men, 377 simple snorers, 403 with untreated mild-to-moderate severe obstructive sleep apnoea, 235 with severe obstructive sleep apnoea, and 372 with CPAP-treated severe obstructive sleep apnoea. The subjects were followed for an average of 10 years.
Patients with severe obstructive sleep apnoea had significantly higher rates of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events than the men in the other groups. The number of fatal events was 3.5-times higher in severe obstructive sleep apnoea patients than healthy subjects. The number of non-fatal events was 4.7-times higher in the severe obstructive sleep apnoea group than in the healthy group. Patients treated with CPAP, however, had fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular event rates that were closer to those seen in the healthy subjects.
After adjusting the data for other potential risk factors, untreated severe obstructive sleep apnoea raised the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events by 2.87- and 3.17-fold, respectively, compared with healthy subjects.
The findings suggest that in untreated men with severe obstructive sleep apnoea, the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events increases. While there is a relation between cardiac risk and the severity of this disease, effective CPAP therapy can significantly reduce cardiovascular events.
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