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SDB and hypertension

People with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) have an increased risk of developing hypertension, independent of all relevant risk factors.1-4, 7 This risk is related to SDB severity; the more severe the SDB, the greater the risk of developing hypertension.

During healthy sleep, blood pressure decreases, but SDB patients instead tend to experience:

  • elevated blood pressure during sleep
  • prolonged cardiovascular stress, which can lead to increased blood pressure also occurring during the day.

SDB is present in more than 30% of patients with hypertension,5 and in around 80% of patients with drug resistant hypertension.6 For this group of patients in particular, treatment with positive airway pressure therapy may be especially important.8

References

  1. Peppard PE et al. N Engl J Med. 2000
  2. Lavie P et al. BMJ. 2000
  3. Nieto FJ, Young TB et al. JAMA. 2000
  • 4: Bixler EO, Vgontzas AN at al. Arch Intern Med. 2000
  • 5: Sjostrom C, Lindberg E et al. Thorax. 2002
  • 6: Logan AG, Perlikowski SM et al. J Hypertens. 2001
  • 7: Marin JM et al. JAMA. 2012
  • 8: Montesi et al. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2012
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