[Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in adults and cardiovascular risk]

Sleep obstructive apnea syndrome (SOAS) is a common condition with a strong male predominance. Its incidence is more than 1 percent in the population as a whole. It exists in snorers. Both snoring and SOAS are linked to the presence of abnormalities (congenital or acquired) of the upper respiratory tract. The nocturnal cardiovascular consequences of SOAS are directly linked to apnea. Bradycardia occurs during apnea and tachycardia when ventilation restarts. Paroxysmal nocturnal hypertension is a constant feature. Even in individuals who are normotensive during the day, each restarting of ventilation is accompanied by peaking of blood pressure. The pulmonary artery pressure curve follows that of systemic blood pressure. Complications begin when SOAS has been present for several years: 1) Chronic: permanent systemic hypertension is common (56 percent of SOAS). It is often refractory to antihypertensive treatment. 2) Acute: the onset of myocardial infarction and of cerebrovascular accidents explains the heavy mortality of SOAS (37 percent at 8 years in untreated individuals with a number of episodes of apnea exceeding 20 per hour of sleep). Other acute complications are less common: acute pulmonary edema, nocturnal sudden death. These events may be prevented by treatment suppressing apnea: actuarial survival curves are then superimposable upon those of the population as a whole. Thus SOAS is a cardiovascular risk factor which is remarkably reversible by specific treatment, though which most often passes unrecognized.