[Arterial hypertension and sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome in primary care]

Sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) is frequent in hypertensive patients and plays a role in a greater incidence of cardiovascular morbidity-mortality. This study aims to know the clinical profile of hypertensive patients with SAHS compared to hypertensive patients without SAHS to know which variables should be used to orient their screening from primary care.

An observational, descriptive, retrospective study of cases (hypertensive patients with SAHS) and controls (hypertensive patients without) was performed in an urban health care center. Based on a computerized registry of the site, patients diagnosed of SAHS and hypertension over 30 years of age were selected. For each case, one control case of hypertensive patients without SAHS paired by age and gender was randomly obtained.

A total of 64 cases and 64 controls were selected. Standing out in the bivariate analysis were greater BMI (34.3±12.8 vs. 28.6±3.6), predominance of obesity (70.3 vs. 35.9%), metabolic syndrome (77.3 vs. 42.2%), consumption of psychopharmaceuticals (19.7 vs. 7.8%) and anithypertensive drugs (26.5 vs. 14.0%), ischemic heart disease (20.3 vs. 9.4%) in the case group versus control group (P<.05 for all the variables). The multivariate analysis showed that only the presence of metabolic syndrome was related with the presence of SAHS in hypertensive patients (OR 4.65; 95% CI: 2.03-10.64; P<.001).

Screening for SAHS should be performed in hypertensive patients seen in primary care if they have metabolic syndrome criteria.