Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder
worldwide. It is associated with myocardial remodeling and arteriosclerosis in
patients with hypertension. Our study investigated the relationship between OSA
severity and arteriosclerosis and blood pressure in an Asian population.
Methods: We enrolled 365 subjects from July 2018 to December 2020 at
Ruijin Hospital. We recorded data from the medical history and collected blood
samples from all participants. We performed 24-hour ambulatory Blood Pressure
(BP) monitoring and Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) measurements.
Overnight polysomnography (PSG) was performed using Respironics Alice
PDxSleepware. Results: PSG was performed in a total of 365 subjects;
mean age of 49.1 12.8 years and Body Mass Index (BMI) 28.1 3.8
kg/m. The majority (89.3%) were male. The office systolic BP was
significantly higher in the moderate to severe group than mild OSA group (148
21 mmHg vs 139 19 mmHg, p 0.01). The subjects with
moderate to severe OSA presented higher cf-PWV values than those in the mild
group (10.03 3.67 m/s vs 7.62 1.48 m/s, p 0.01). BMI
was significantly higher in the moderate to severe than the mild OSA groups (28.3
4.0 kg/m vs 27.5 3.2 kg/m, p 0.05). The Pearson
correlation showed that the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was significantly and
positively correlated with cf-PWV (r = 0.217, p 0.01), Age
(r = 0.148, p 0.01), BMI (r = 0.228, p 0.01) and HbA1c (r = 0.172, p 0.01). After adjusting
for age, BMI, low density lipoprotein cholesterin (LDL-c), FGB, AHI, estimated
Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR), Night BP, office diastolic BP and Day BP in
Logistic regression model, AHI (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.05) and office
diastolic pressure (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00–1.08) and age (OR = 1.12, 95% CI:
1.06–1.19) were independent risk factors for arteriosclerosis.
Conclusions: The severity of OSA was positively correlated with pulse
wave velocity. AHI, office BP and age were independent risk factors for
arteriosclerosis.