Somers - Figure 10
Prevalence of OSA in CVD Patients
FIG. 10: As shown in this Figure, there is a fairly significant prevalence of comorbid cardiovascular disease in patients with sleep apnea. On the other hand, in patients with existing cardiovascular disease there is lso a higher-than-expected likelihood of having OSA.[4] For example,
- Approxmately 50% of patients with hypertension will have significant OSA;
- Approximately 25% of patients with heart failure will have OSA (bearing in mind that another 25% will have CSA);
- Approximately 30% of patients with acute coronary syndromes (unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction [MI]) will have significant sleep apnea;
- Approximately 60% of patients who have had a stroke will have OSA.
So the message is that a number of cardiovascular conditions will have a fairly high likelihood of having comorbid OSA, and the question is, does OSA in the setting of cardiovascular disease impart a poorer prognosis? And a follow-up question that has yet to be answered definitively is whether treating the OSA has an effect on hard CVD outcomes, meaning heart attack, sudden death, hospitalizations, etc.
References
Lattimore JD, Celermajer DS, Wilcox I. Obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2003;41:1429–1437.
