Sleep Apnea Ups Heart Failure Deaths

Heart failure patients with untreated sleep apnea are twice as likely to die as heart failure patients without the disorder, say Canadian researchers.

A research team at the Sleep Research Laboratories at Toronto General Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York followed 164 patients in a seven-year study.

They found that people with obstructive sleep apnea who did not receive treatment had a death rate of 24 percent, while the death rate was 12 percent for patients with no sleep apnea, and zero for people with OSA who were placed on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.

OSA occurs when a sleeping person stops breathing at least 15 to 20 times an hour. These interruptions in breathing deprive the brain of oxygen and activate the sympathetic nervous system, increasing blood pressure and heart rate, which contribute to the development of heart failure.

The researchers noted that most heart failure patients don’t have the usual symptoms of OSA, including headache in the morning, loud snoring, restless sleep, or daytime sleepiness, which means the problem goes undetected unless a sleep study is performed.

The study will be published in the April 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.