TY - JOUR T1 - Beneficial Effects of Long-Term CPAP Treatment on Sleep Quality and Blood Pressure in Adherent Subjects With Obstructive Sleep Apnea JF - Respiratory Care SP - 1810 LP - 1818 DO - 10.4187/respcare.04199 VL - 60 IS - 12 AU - Mei-Chen Yang AU - Yi-Chih Huang AU - Chou-Chin Lan AU - Yao-Kuang Wu AU - Kuo-Feng Huang Y1 - 2015/12/01 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/60/12/1810.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Although CPAP is the first treatment choice for moderate-to-severe OSA, acceptance of and adherence to CPAP remain problematic. High CPAP adherence is generally defined as ≥4 h of use/night for ≥70% of the nights monitored. We investigated the long-term beneficial effects of CPAP on sleep quality and blood pressure in subjects with moderate-to-severe OSA according to high or low CPAP adherence.METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 121 subjects with moderate-to-severe OSA from August 2008 to July 2012. These subjects were divided into 3 groups: (1) no CPAP treatment (n = 29), (2) low CPAP adherence (n = 28), and (3) high CPAP adherence (n = 64). All subjects were followed up for at least 1 y. The 3 groups were compared regarding anthropometric and polysomnographic variables, presence of cardiovascular comorbidities, and blood pressure at baseline and at the last follow-up.RESULTS: The no-treatment group showed significant increases in oxygen desaturation index and blood pressure. The high-adherence group showed significant improvement in daytime sleepiness, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), oxygen desaturation index, and blood pressure. Although the AHI was also significantly decreased after CPAP treatment in the low-adherence group, blood pressure remained unchanged.CONCLUSIONS: CPAP treatment had beneficial effects on both sleep quality and blood pressure only in subjects with OSA and high CPAP adherence who used CPAP for ≥4 h/night for ≥70% of nights monitored. Subjects with low CPAP adherence received beneficial effects on AHI, but not blood pressure. ER -