Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with oxidative stress, risk factors including hypertension, and with binary presence of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, whether OSA contributes to the severity of CAD and to future adverse events in patients with CAD remains unknown.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between severe OSA and multivessel CAD.

We examined the apnea hypopnea index (AHI) using polygraphy (PG) in 60 consecutive patients with ACS who underwent coronary angiography. OSA was defined by AHI≥5 events per hour and was considered severe if the AHI≥30 events per hour. The Friesinger score was calculated for each patient from the coronary angiography to evaluate the severity of CAD.

The average age of patients was 59.73 years±10.1 years. The sex ratio was 1, 5.

61, 7% of patients had an AHI≥5 and 21,7% had severe OSA with AHI≥30. The Friesinger score was significantly greater in the group with multivessel CAD (11, 28±4, 17 versus 5, 35±3, 96, p=0,0001). There were no differences between patients having multivessel CAD and those with single-vessel CAD regarding clinical characteristics.

Table summarizes these results.
Abstract 0218 – Table: Comparison of patients with multivessel CAD and with single vessel CAD.Multivessel CAD (n=33)Single vessel CAD (n=27)PAge59,3±9,160,26±11,470,72Male35%25%0,51Bmi27,75±3,4328,27±4,610,62Smoking31,7%20%0,31Hypertension33,3%28,3%0,85Diabetes35%23,3%0,35Severe OSA11,7%10%0,83

In summary, these data suggest a high occurrence of obstructive sleep apnoea in patients with CAD, which should be taken into account when considering risk factors for CAD. However, severe OSA is not more frequent in the group of multivessel CAD. Further studies are needed to evaluate the impact of the presence of severe OSA on short and long term prognosis.