Sleep apnea treatment reduces hard-to-control high blood pressure: study

People with sleep apnea and hard-to-control high blood pressure might see their blood pressure drop if they treated the sleep disorder, according to Spanish researchers.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was the standard treatment for sleep apnea, a condition that manifested in disrupted breathing during sleep. According to medical opinion the sleep disorder was linked to high blood pressure.

Patients in the study conducted by Spanish researchers were taking three or more drugs to lower their blood pressure, in addition to having sleep apnea.

Participants who used the CPAP device for 12 weeks saw their diastolic blood pressure fall, while their overall nighttime blood pressure improved, the researchers found.

According to lead researcher, Dr Miguel-Angel Martinez-Garcia, from the Polytechnic University Hospital in Valencia, the prevalence of sleep apnea in patients with resistant (high blood pressure) was very high.

He added, the sleep apnea treatment increased the probability of recovering the normal nocturnal blood pressure pattern.

According to Martinez-Garcia, patients with resistant high blood pressure need to undergo sleep study to rule out obstructive sleep apnea, said. He said, if the patient had sleep apnea, he needed to be treated with CPAP and undergo blood pressure monitoring.

Meanwhile, Dr Harold Menchel, a dentist, said in the Sun Sentinel  that while viewing the television images of train engineer William Rockefeller, who was driving a Metro North train that derailed, he had speculated that the accident was directly related to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), not negligence by the engineer.

OSA is caused by upper airway blockage (nose and throat) while asleep, which lowers air flow to the lungs and reduces the oxygen content of the blood, which in turn, leads to the classic symptoms of daytime tiredness and poor sleep quality. He said that patients were typically overweight, had thick necks and snored heavily.

He cited epidemiological studies that show the prevalence of OSA was as high as 31 per cent in the middle- to older-aged male population.

According to the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), OSA was the second most common cause of single-car motor vehicle accidents after driver distraction.

Dr Menchel said that other train derailments had also been attributed to OSA.

While accepting he could be wrong, he said that the quote from Rockefeller - "I was in a zone", coupled with his obvious typical physical profile for the disorder, (obese, thick-necked, middle-aged male) had prompted his opinion.