OSA may provide cardioprotection

Although this study cannot definitively establish a clinically meaningful protective effect, it does provide important “preliminary evidence supporting the concept of OSA-induced cardioprotection” and challenges existing research, according to an editorial by Doron Aronson, MD, of the department of cardiology at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, and coauthors (CHEST. 2018 Feb 153[2]:295-7. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2017.07.036).

The results should be interpreted with caution, especially since accurate assessment of infarct size poses a challenge, they wrote.

“Myocardial infarct size is highly variable and is influenced by the duration of coronary occlusion, ST-segment elevation or non–ST elevation myocardial infarction, infarct location, residual antegrade infarct-related artery flow, collateral flow, the presence of non–culprit vessel coronary artery disease and myocardial metabolic demand,” they wrote. “Without accounting for these variables in a small study, results may be affected by variation in the characteristics of the patients.”

Though further study is needed, the findings may have “profound clinical implications regarding our therapeutic approach to patients with sleep apnea” if confirmed, the authors concluded.