Cardiorespiratory response to exercise in men and women with obstructive sleep apnea.
BACKGROUND
OSA severity has been associated with self-reported lack of exercise. Most of the research has been done with men recruited from sleep clinics. There is limited data on the exercise performance of women with OSA. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess exercise performance in a prospective, consecutive sample of men and women with OSA to compare their cardio respiratory parameters, arterial blood pressure and heart rate responses during and after exercise.


METHODS
Sixty-two subjects (32 men) completed the protocol. Men had a higher peak VO2, percent predicted peak VO2, VCO2, heart rate, systolic BP, and oxygen pulse than women.


RESULTS
There were no differences between men and women for peak oxygen saturation, peak Borg scales for dyspnea and leg fatigue and diastolic BP. A significant negative correlation was found between severity of OSA as measured by AHI, and peak VO2 (r=-0.4) in women, but not in men.


CONCLUSIONS
Men with OSA have higher peak VO2 and higher peak exercise heart rate than women with OSA; they also have higher end-exercise systolic BP than women and higher SBP during recovery from exercise; although this difference is not significant when adjusted for peak systolic BP. In men with OSA, there is no correlation between peak VO2 and AHI, but there is a significant correlation between these variables in women. Heart rate and blood pressure behaved similarly during exercise in both groups.
Cintra
Fatima
F
Universidade Federal de Sâo Paulo, Psychobiology Department, R Marselhesa, 500, Sao Paulo, Brazil. fatimacintra@interair.com.br <fatimacintra@interair.com.br>
Poyares
Dalva
D
Rizzi
Camila F
CF
Risso
Thais T
TT
Skomro
Robert
R
Montuori
Emilio
E
Mello-Fujita
Luciane
L
de Paola
Angelo
A
Tufik
Sergio
S
D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000503:physiopathology; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018763:Muscle Fatigue / Q000502:physiology; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology*