Data shows that resistant hypertension conferred increased risk for sleep apnea, and patients with both conditions had greater risk for ischemic events and heart failure.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study between 2006 and 2010 of 470,386 adults with hypertension from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California database.

Participants were stratified by whether they had resistant or nonresistant hypertension, and ORs for sleep apnea were calculated for both groups.

The researchers also performed analyses adjusted for age, sex, race, BMI, chronic kidney disease and other comorbidities to determine HRs for ischemic heart events, congestive HF, stroke and mortality among those with sleep apnea.

The researchers reported that 7.2% of the overall cohort had sleep apnea, as did 9.6% of the resistant hypertension cohort and 6.8% of the nonresistant hypertension cohort.

Compared with those with nonresistant hypertension, those with resistant hypertension had greater odds for sleep apnea (OR = 1.16; 95% CI, 1.12-1.19).

Increased odds of sleep apnea were also present in those with BMI of at least 30 kg/m2 (OR = 3.57; 95% CI, 3.47-3.66) and in men (OR = 2.2; 95% CI, 2.15-2.25), according to the researchers.

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