Sleep apnea syndrome: a possible contributing factor to resistant.
OBJECTIVE
There is evidence supporting an association between sleep apnea and hypertension. However, it is not clear if sleep apnea interteres with the pharmacotherapy of hypertension. To investigate this question, we studied the relationship between the effectiveness of anti-hypertensive treatment in reducing blood pressure, and severity of sleep apnea in a large group of apneic patients referred to a sleep disorders centre at St. Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto.


METHODS
N/A.


METHODS
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METHODS
1,485 adult patients with sleep apnea, as defined by the apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) >10 events/hr, were analyzed. There were 393 who reported using anti-hypertensive medications on a regular basis for more than 6 months. One hundred and eighty-three patients were treated "effectively" (i.e. blood pressure lower than 140/90 mm Hg in the morning and in the evening). Seventy-four patients were treated "ineffectively," defined as blood pressure >140/90 mm Hg in the morning or in the evening. Both groups were compared with respect to clinical and demographic data using analysis of covariance with gender, age, body mass index (BMI), and neck circumference (NC) as covariates.


METHODS
N/A.


RESULTS
Ineffectively and effectively treated patients were similar in age (57 +/- 9) vs. 57 +/- 10 years, respectively), and had similar body mass index (33.8 +/- 7.4 vs. 33.4 +/- 7.3 kg/m2, respectively). However, ineffectively treated patients had significantly higher apnea/hypopnea index (44 +/- 29 vs. 33 +/- 25 events/hr, p<.0005), despite having similar nocturnal oxygenation (percent of total sleep time spent with oxygen desaturation lower than 90% was 36 +/- 34 vs. 29 +/- 30% in the ineffective and effective groups, respectively). The difference in AHI persisted even after adjusting for age, gender, and body mass index.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results demonstrate that hypertensive patients with sleep apnea whose blood pressure responds beneficially to treatment have less severe sleep apnea than those patients whose blood pressure remains elevated despite anti-hypertensive therapy. Since neither obesity nor nocturnal hypoxemia appear to be important determinants of ineffective treatment, we suggest that resistant hypertension may be caused by frequent intermittent sympathetic stimulation.
Lavie
P
P
Sleep Laboratory, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. plavie@tx.technion.ac.il
Hoffstein
V
V
D000328:Adult; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents