People
who have obstructive sleep apnea -- when a person stops breathing for periods
during sleep -- have a greater risk of sudden cardiac death, according to a
study published online today in the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology. An estimated 12 million American adults have obstructive sleep
apnea, and many of them are undiagnosed, according to the National Heart, Lung
and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
In the study, funded by the NHLBI,
10,701 people who participated in sleep studies were followed for an average of
5.3 years for incidence of sudden cardiac death. In that time, 142 patients
died of sudden cardiac death. The most common predictors were an age of 60 or
older, 20 or more apnea episodes per hour of sleep, and oxygen saturation below
78 percent during sleep.
"What we found that is new with
this study is that if you have sleep apnea, your risk of sudden death increases
almost twofold, particularly if you stopped breathing more than 20 times per
hour of sleep and if you had severe falls in oxygen saturation during
sleep," says senior author Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic
cardiologist.
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