Patients who have difficulty achieving adequate asthma control should be screened for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), conclude researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison.

After studying 472 patients with asthma, investigators discovered that a high risk for OSA is significantly associated with "not-well-controlled asthma," independent of known asthma aggravators.

"These data strengthen the evidence of the role of OSA in asthma control and suggest that OSA may prove to be a treatable target in patients affected by these highly prevalent and interacting conditions," according to the authors.