CPAP and the Heart | Itamar Medical

                
Prevention magazine selected EndoPAT among top medical breakthroughs

            View all publications

Special Report: CPAP and the Heart

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea have enlarged and thickened hearts that pump less effectively, but the heart abnormalities improve with use of CPAP, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Researchers from the University Hospital Antwerp in Antwerp, Belgium noted that in addition to the shape and size of the heart being affected, the right side of the heart was dilated, the heart muscle on the left side was thicker, and pump function was reduced as well. These changes were directly related to the severity of the sleep apnea. However, treating the problem with CPAP brought significant improvements in symptoms in a relatively short period of six months.

The Belgian heart study included 43 patients (32 men and 11 women) with obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep lab studies measured the severity and frequency of complete or partial interruptions of airflow. The shape and pumping action of the participants’ hearts was measured using ultrasound. The researchers also examined 40 similar control subjects who were healthy and did not report any symptoms that would indicate sleep apnea.

In their study the researchers reported that:

Compared to the control subjects, the hearts of the sleep apnea patients were significantly enlarged on the right side and had thickened walls between the pumping chambers.

The hearts of sleep apnea patients also pumped less blood per beat, and the velocity of wall motion was slower for both the left and right compared to the control subjects.

The sleep apnea patients also had higher blood pressure and faster heart rates than the control subjects. The severity of the heart abnormalities was correlated with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.

The sleep apnea patients were then given CPAP devices to treat their breathing problems. In this study, the 25 sleep apnea patients who were evaluated after six months of CPAP treatment were not only sleeping better, and were more alert during the day, but there were significant improvements in their heart’s size, shape and pumping action.

WatchPAT