Comparative associations of oximetry patterns in Obstructive Sleep Apnea with incident cardiovascular disease

Intermittent hypoxia is a key mechanism linking Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Oximetry analysis could enhance understanding of which OSA phenotypes are associated with CVD risk. The aim of this study was to compare associations of different oximetry patterns with incident CVD in men and women with OSA.

Sleep Heart Health Study data were used for analysis. n = 2878 Participants (51.8% female; mean age 63.5 ± 10.5 years) with OSA (Apnea Hypopnea Index [AHI] ≥ 5 events/h) and no pre-existing CVD at baseline or within the first 2 years of follow-up were included. Four oximetry analysis approaches were applied: desaturation characteristics, time series analysis, power spectral density, and non-linear analysis. Thirty-one resulting oximetry patterns were compared to incident CVD using proportional hazards regression models adjusted for age, race, smoking, BMI, and sex.

There were no associations between OSA oximetry patterns and incident CVD in the total sample or in men. In women, there were some associations between incident CVD and time series analysis (e.g. SpO2 distribution standard deviation, HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.68-0.96, p = 0.014) and power spectral density oximetry patterns (e.g. Full frequency band mean HR 0.75; 95% CI 0.59-0.95; p = 0.015).

Comprehensive comparison of baseline oximetry patterns in OSA found none were related to development of CVD. There were no standout individual oximetry patterns that appear to be candidates for CVD risk phenotyping in OSA, but some showed marginal relationships with CVD risk in women. Further work is required to understand whether OSA phenotypes can be used to predict susceptibility to cardiovascular disease.