Effects of Positive Airway Pressure on Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients with Concomitant Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Cardiovascular Disease

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common in cardiovascular disease (CVD), although positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment has not been demonstrated to improve the cardiovascular outcome. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of adherence to PAP therapy on cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) performance in patients with concomitant OSA and CVD. This preliminary study involved symptomatic OSA patients requiring PAP treatment who had CVD. All subjects underwent polysomnography, echocardiography, and CPET at baseline. After 6 to 12 months of PAP treatment, CPET performance was re-assessed. The changes in CPET parameters before and after PAP treatment were compared between patients who were adherent to PAP and patients who were not adherent to PAP. A total of 16 OSA patients with an apnea-hypopnea index of 32.0 ± 23.4 were enrolled. Patients were classified into the adherent ( = 9) and non-adherent ( = 7) groups with regard to PAP adherence. After 6 to 12 months of PAP treatment, the PAP-adherent group showed a greater increase in peak VO2 than the PAP-non-adherent group, but the difference between the two groups was not significant ( = 0.581). The decrease in ventilatory equivalent for the carbon dioxide slope (VE/VCO2) was significantly greater in the PAP-adherent group compared to the PAP-non-adherent group ( = 0.030). Adherence to PAP therapy for OSA is associated with an improvement in the VE/VCO2 slope, as an index of the ventilatory response to exercise, in patients with CVD. Screening for sleep apnea in CVD patients may be warranted, and strategies to optimize adherence to PAP in these patients are beneficial. Further evidence is needed to elucidate whether CPET could be routinely used to monitor treatment responses of OSA to PAP therapy in patients with CVD.