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For people who have both a common type of irregular heartbeat and a common sleep disorder, treating the sleep problem helps keep the heart rhythm under control, too, researchers say.
12 million Americans affected
The sleep disorder, obstructive sleep apnoea, affects 12 million Americans and raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.
Using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine reduces episodes of sleep apnoea. And now, a new review of past studies finds that CPAP also reduces recurrences of an arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation (AF).
Dr. Larry Chinitz of NYU Langone Medical Centre in New York City and colleagues pooled the results of seven past studies involving more than 1,000 patients with AF and sleep apnoea who were followed for seven to 42 months.
Read: Diagnosing sleep disorders
After AF was treated with medication or surgery, it recurred in about 33 percent of CPAP users, compared to 58 percent of non-CPAP-users.
The findings were released by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Clinical Electrophysiology.
In 2010, five million U.S. adults had AF; that number is expected to rise to about 12 million by 2030.
Uncomfortable palpitations and heart failure
AF can cause uncomfortable palpitations and lead to heart failure or stroke. Current treatments include medications and catheter ablation with pulmonary vein isolation, which removes a faulty electrical pathway from sections of the heart.
Chinitz said CPAP is effective, and it's not surprising that it reduces the risk for AF.
But users need to wear masks while they sleep, which can be uncomfortable, making CPAP "hard for people to comply with," Chinitz said.
Read: Types of sleeping disorders
AF "needs to be evaluated in individual patients so doctors can assess risk and determine therapy, if any," Chinitz said. "It's mostly dangerous when we don't identify it."
People with AF should be screened for obstructive sleep apnoea, and those who have it should be aggressively encouraged to use CPAP, he said.
In sleep apnoea, soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep, blocking the airway and causing the brain to rouse the sleeper, who gasps for air – a cycle that can occur as many as 30 times in an hour.
Numerous untoward health outcomes
"We know that sleep apnoea is associated with numerous untoward health outcomes," said Dr. Nathaniel F. Watson, professor of neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not part of the new study.
CPAP may also delay memory declines in people with sleep apnoea, as reported last week.
This new study "is further evidence of the impact of sleep apnoea and further indication for the positive benefits of CPAP," Watson told Reuters Health by phone.
Read: Treating sleep disorders
Most people with sleep apnoea are undiagnosed and untreated, he noted. Every patient with AF, recurrent or not, should be screened for sleep obstructions, he said.
Read More:
Night owls run higher risk of health problems
Heavy snoring and apnoea linked to earlier mental decline
Image: Man sleeping with cpap device from Shutterstock
