Severe obstructive sleep apnea may interfere with blood pressure (BP)–lowering treatment in patients at high cardiovascular disease risk or with established cardiovascular disease, results of a multicenter clinical trial suggest.
Doctors should consider that severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be the reason why they cannot get their hypertensive patients to respond to optimal antihypertensive treatment, lead author, Harneet Walia, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, told Medscape Medical News.
“We found an association between severe untreated obstructive sleep apnea and resistant elevated BP, despite the use of antihypertensive medications in patients who have cardiovascular risk or cardiovascular disease,” Dr Walia said.
