Healio: A new study highlights an independent association between obstructive sleep apnea and coronary plaque presence and burden, suggesting it may be a risk factor for coronary events.
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional, single-center study that enrolled 692 adults (mean age, 55.1 years; 71% men) who underwent sleep monitoring and coronary CT angiography at Beijing Anzhen Hospital from September 2015 to April 2019. One hundred twenty patients (17.3%) underwent polysomnography and 572 (82.7%) underwent respiratory polygraph.
Both apnea-hypopnea index and oxygen desaturation index were associated with the presence of coronary plaque, a noncalcified plaque component and a low-density noncalcified plaque component (P < .05 for all), the researchers reported.
