Dec. 14 (Bloomberg)—A face mask used to treat a nighttime breathing
disorder called obstructive sleep apnea can reduce a patient’s blood pressure,
cholesterol and stomach fat, potentially improving their heart health,
researchers found.
The condition affects as many as 18 million Americans,
primarily men, and is often first recognized by the patient’s partner. It is marked by a brief collapse of the
airway, which leads the patient to stop breathing for a few seconds until the
brain sends a signal to wake up. The result
is a fractured night’s sleep, daytime drowsiness and a host of health issues.
Standard treatment is a mask attached to a continuous positive
airway pressure, or CPAP, machine. The
machines can by cumbersome, leading many to quit using them within a year. The results should help persuade patients to
stick with the therapy, said Surendra Sharma, lead author of the study released
by the New England Journal of Medicine.
“These patients need to be properly counseled for regular
use of CPAP machines,” because compliance is associated with greater benefits,
said Sharma, head of the department of internal medicine at the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, in an e-mailed response to
questions. “In a real-life situation,
the machine will be used for a longer period and more benefits will be
observed.”
Pfizer Inc. funded the trial through an investigator-initiated
research grant. The New York-based
company, the world’s largest drug maker, doesn't manufacture or sell devices
for sleep apnea and wasn't involved in the design, conduct or analysis of the
study, the researchers said.
GROWING MARKET:
The global market to diagnose and treat patients with sleep
apnea is about $2.9 billion and growing, with CPAP devices accounting for about
one-third of the total, according to Global Industry Analysts Inc., a market
research firm based in San Jose, California, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Corp. of Auchland, dominate the industry.
The study involved 86 patients recruited from the sleep
laboratory at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. They were treated with either a legitimate
CPAP machine or a doctored device that included an airflow-restricting
connector and tiny escape holes.
Patients used each of the machines, which looked the same, for three
months, with a one-month break between treatment.
BLOOD PRESSURE
After treatment, patients’’ systolic blood pressure,
measured during heart contractions dropped an average of 3.9 millimeters of mercury
or mmHg, while their diastolic blood pressure, when the heart fills with blood,
fell by 2.5 mmHg. Previous studies of
drug treatment found a 5 mmHg decline cut heart disease risk by 15% and strokes
by 42%.
The CPAP machine also reduced total cholesterol by 13.3 mg
per deciliter and artery-clogging bad cholesterol by 9.6 mg per deciliter, the
study found. Benefits also were seen in
abdominal fat content, weight loss and improved hemoglobin levels, the
researchers said.
A constellation of heart risk factors, known as the
metabolic syndrome, also appeared to reverse in 11 or the 86 patients after
CPAP treatment. Those who were most
adherent to the therapy showed a reduction in plaque buildup in the walls of the
arteries leading to the brain. “These
results suggest a significant clinical benefit that will lead to a reduction in
cardiovascular risk,” the investigators concluded.
POSTED BY: Steven Ajluni, MD
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