What is the evidence that obstructive sleep apnoea is an important illness?

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is described by some authors as a potentially lethal disease and by others as an almost harmless condition. Excessive daytime sleepiness, neuropsychological dysfunction, altered quality of life, cardiovascular disease (systemic and pulmonary hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, stroke and ischaemic heart disease) and increased mortality have been described as OSA complications. There is little argument that OSA may determine sleepiness, alter cognitive functions, and worsen quality of life, although with great interindividual variability: this should induce OSA to be considered an important illness per se, since sleepiness in OSA was shown to lead to important consequences, like road traffic accidents. Besides, OSA may interact with coexisting cardiac and respiratory disease and favour the appearance of heart and respiratory failure. Therefore, OSA is certainly also worth careful consideration as an important aggravating factor of other diseases. The evidence that obstructive sleep apnoea is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular complications other than owing to the recurrent transient blood pressure surges associated with apnoeas during sleep, and for an increased mortality is more conflicting. More studies are necessary to identify which characteristics of obstructive sleep apnoea may be considered important markers of its severity and as risk factors for different possible complications.