Monday, November 5, 2012

CPAP use and high blood pressure.

It's well known that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is linked to high blood pressure (HTN). However, it's less clear that CPAP reduces HTN. In the October edition of Journal of clinical Sleep Medicine is a study attempting to show just that. Researchers studied veterans with known OSA who also had HTN and diabetes (DM). They monitored their CPAP use and followed them for upto one year.

Results showed that both systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly with CPAP use. This effect was most prominent with African-American patients, but still present in European-Americans. Interestingly, CPAP use did not reduce the subjects fasting blood sugar levels or long term blood sugar control as measured by their hemoglobin A1C.

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