Sleep Apnea risk factor for Coronary Artery Disease

From Medscape Medical News

New Findings Support Obstructive Sleep Apnea as a Risk Factor for Coronary Artery Disease
Becky McCall

September 24, 2010 (Barcelona, Spain) — The latest findings from a Swedish study suggest that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) might be a stronger risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD) than commonly recognized factors like obesity, diabetes, smoking, and hypertension, and even more prevalent in the CAD population than has been previously reported.

Here at the European Respiratory Society 2010 Annual Congress, Yuksel Peker, MD, a pulmonologist at Skaraborg Hospital in Skövde, Sweden, presented the latest findings from the ongoing Randomized Intervention with CPAP in Coronary Artery Disease and Sleep Apnoea (RICCADSA) trial.

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The study is ongoing, Dr. Peker acknowledged, but analyses of baseline demographics and comorbidity profiles continue to strongly support OSA as a risk factor for CAD.

Dr. Peker said that not only is the prevalence of OSA "surprisingly high," these patients do not always show typical symptoms such as sleepiness.

"We found that the prevalence of OSA is 64% in the CAD population. This is very high. Hypertension is 58% and obesity 28% [in this population], so OSA is much more common than more conventional risk factors. Of course, these comorbidities probably interact. In fact, CAD patients with OSA have far more comorbidities than CAD patients without OSA," he told Medscape Medical News.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/729361