Study: Sleep Apnea Masks Help Hearts Heal, Too

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Heart Disease
Article Date: 05 Feb 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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It's estimated that some 12 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea*- which means they could stop breathing in their sleep, in some cases hundreds of times per night. Most people who have moderate to severe cases of sleep apnea are given a mask to wear at night that helps them sleep better, but it might be doing much more than that. In the first study of it's kind, Doctors have found it may be helping to heal the heart too.

It may look uncomfortable, but Lou Flocken says this mask is helping him get the best sleep of his life. After years of snoring, his wife insisted he go to the doctor who diagnosed Lou with sleep apnea.

"They said that I had 35 interruptions of my sleep per hour. So that meant that I was never getting fully asleep," says Lou.

Because he was deprived of oxygen at night, Lou's heart was being damaged, which is why he started using a continuous positive airway pressure mask, or a C-PAP mask. Doctors have known for sometime that it helps patients breathe better.

"What we haven't known as well, is, whether or not C-PAP benefits the heart," says Doctor Subha Raman, MD at the Ohio State University Medical Center.

So doctors at the Ohio State University Medical Center decided to find out. They took MRI's of patients to get a good idea of the size and shape of their hearts when they were first diagnosed. Then patients were given C-PAP masks to sleep in. After several weeks they came back for another MRI, and doctors were surprised by what they saw.

"We saw that before treatment, the heart was enlarged. But after three months of careful use of their CPAP, we saw a reduction in the enlargement of the heart," says Dr. Raman.

In all, experts say of the 13 patients who tried it, there were "significant" changes in the right ventricle of the heart.* Which means this mask not only helps with sleep disorders, but may be helping doctors get to the heart of a much more serious problem, as well.

Doctors say if left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to high blood pressure, and increase your risk of diabetes or having a stroke. If someone complains that you snore loudly and often you may want to get checked out by your doctor.

*Who Is At Risk for Sleep Apnea? National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, retrieved January 2008 from: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/SleepApnea/
**Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy Reduced Right Ventricular Volume in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Study, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, accepted November 18, 2008, retrieved from http://www.aasmnet.org/jcsm/AcceptedPapers/1267.pdf

Ohio State University Medical Center

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