TRIP

Sleep Apnea Tied to Fatal Heart Issues for Women, Too (CME/CE)

MedPageToday, 2012

Explain that severe obstructive apnea was associated with a risk of cardiovascular death in women, but continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) seemed to reduce the risk.
Point out that for those untreated patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea, there was not a statistically significant increase in cardiovascular death.
Severe obstructive sleep apnea was associated with a risk of cardiovascular death in women, but continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) seemed to reduce the risk, according to a small Spanish study.
In a 116-patient, observational study, those with severe obstructive sleep apnea had a cardiovascular mortality rate of 3.71 per 100 person-years compared with the control group's rate of 0.28 per 100 person years ( P < 0.001), Francisco Campos-Rodriguez, MD, from Valme University Hospital in Seville, Spain, and colleagues found.
Women with mild to moderate apnea had a mortality rate of 0.94 per 100 person-years ( P =0.034 compared with the control group), they reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Despite prevalence data suggesting that 2% to 3% of middle-age women have obstructive sleep apnea, most of the studies on both apnea and cardiovascular effects have been done exclusively in men.
The study population consisted of women referred to the sleep units of two hospitals in Spain between December 1998 and December 2007.
Following a sleep study, CPAP was offered to the patients with apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 30 or greater without regard to symptoms.
Those with AHI scores between 10 and 29 were prescribed CPAP if they also had daytime hypersomnolence.
This information was compiled by the home health provider with primary responsibility for respiratory therapies.
Patients were reviewed at three-month intervals at the sleep center during the first year and every 12 months thereafter.