Open AccessSleep Apnea and Hypertension
Author(s) -
Pickering Thomas G.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the journal of clinical hypertension
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1751-7176
pISSN - 1524-6175
DOI - 10.1111/j.1524-6175.2002.01513.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sleep apnea , blood pressure , obstructive sleep apnea , guideline , sleep (system call) , polysomnography , disease , risk factor , apnea , breathing , pediatrics , cardiology , physical therapy , psychiatry , pathology , computer science , operating system
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and the related clinical syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), have for many years been associated with hypertension in clinical reports, but it is only recently that a causal association linking SDB to the development of hypertension has been established, and most clinicians who manage hypertensive patients do not pay much attention to it. In the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (sixth report) (JNC VI), which is the standard guideline for the evaluation of hypertension in the United States, sleep apnea is not mentioned as a possible cause of hypertension (1), and many major textbooks on hypertension also pay no attention to it. In this chapter, we review the physiology of sleep; circulatory changes during sleep; and associations between sleep apnea, hypertension, and obesity. We also discuss the effects of treating OSA, and controlling hypertension and its clinical implications.