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Review
. 2020 Oct;12(Suppl 2):S225-S234.
doi: 10.21037/jtd-cus-2020-014.

Treating sleep disorders to improve blood pressure control and cardiovascular prevention: a dream come true?-a narrative review

Giuseppe Maiolino  1 , Valeria Bisogni  2 , Alessandro Silvani  3 , Martino Francesco Pengo  4 , Carolina Lombardi  4   5 , Gianfranco Parati  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Treating sleep disorders to improve blood pressure control and cardiovascular prevention: a dream come true?-a narrative review

Giuseppe Maiolino et al. J Thorac Dis. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the primary risk factors for heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death worldwide. Current evidence supports the treatment of high blood pressure (BP) values in order to obtain a substantial reduction of cardiovascular burden. Sleep plays an important role in maintaining nocturnal BP control and nocturnal hypertension which, in turn, can be affected by the presence of sleep disorders. Whilst respiratory disturbances have been extensively studied and their causal role in the development of nocturnal hypertension has been demonstrated in both cross sectional and prospective studies, less is known about the impact of other sleep disorders such as insomnia. In this review, we aim to describe the role of sleep disorders in the development of nocturnal and diurnal hypertension. Furthermore, we aim to discuss the potential impact of the treatment of such sleep disorders on BP values as an adjunct treatment for patients with hypertension.

Keywords: Sleep disorders; hypertension; nocturnal blood pressure; therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jtd-cus-2020-014). The series “5th Clinical Update Sleep” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. GP reports personal fees from Omron Healthcare, personal fees from Sanofi, outside the submitted work. The other authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

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