Does CPAP prevent Cardiovascular disease from getting worse ?
This study ran 5 years, involved 89 clinical centres in 7 countries.
The size of this study was huge, 2717 adults between the ages of of 45 and 75.
All patients had a diagnosis of heart disease and moderate-to-severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Most patients (81%) were men.
At the end of this study, a composite index was used as an end point measurement . (death from heart disease, heart attack, stroke, angina, snoring, quality of life, daytime sleepiness and mood).
There was no difference between those who used CPAP and those that did not.
It was observed that snoring, sleepiness, quality of life and mood where improved with CPAP use, but heart disease was not, even in those who who had treatment for heart disease.
In this study, the mean time of wearing CPAP was 3.3 hours per night.
Other studies have shown that cardiovascular benefits begin when CPAP is worn 4hours/night or more.
The authors’ affiliations are listed in the Appendix. Address reprint requests to Dr. McEvoy at the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health, Flinders University and Re‐ spiratory and Sleep Services, Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, Repatria‐ tion General Hospital, Daw Park, Adelaide SA 5041, Australia, or at doug.mcevoy@ flinders.edu.au; or to Dr. Luo at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medi‐ cal University, State Key Laboratory of Re‐ spiratory Disease, Guangzhou, China, or at yuanmingluo9431@yahoo.co.uk.
*A complete list of sites and trial investi‐ gators and coordinators in the Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints (SAVE) study is provided in the Supplementary Appendix, available at NEJM.org.
This article was published on August 28, 2016, at NEJM.org.
N Engl J Med 2016;375:919-31. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1606599
