Sleep Apnea Linked to Atrial Fibrillation

A study has found that atrial fibrillation (AF) is twice as likely to recur in patients with untreated sleep apnea. The findings were reported in the May 27, 2003, issue of Circulation.

Researchers compared 39 AF patients who had been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with 79 controls who were treated for AF by cardioversion but had not been diagnosed with OSA. Of the 39 OSA patients, 27 received no OSA treatment or used it inappropriately (less than five times a week) for a year after cardioversion. AF recurred in 82% of the 27 patients with untreated OSA, compared to 42% in the treated OSA group. The controls had a 53% recurrence rate. The study results showed that OSA was the single factor most closely associated with recurrence of AF.

"It is conceivable that a consequent increase in obstructive sleep apnea may contribute to the dramatic increase in the incidence of AF, which has nearly tripled during the past three decades,” said Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA), who led the study. Because the prevalence of OSA increases with obesity, leading candidates for OSA screening are patients with recurrent AF who are obese, noted Dr. Summers.




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