ABSTRACT
Previous publications indicate that sleep apnea syndrome is found in 3035% of patients with clinical systemic hypertension (1-4). There is a growing consensus among sleep disorders investigators that obstructive sleep apnea is a risk factor for systemic hypertension independent of obesity or age. Acute apnea is accompanied by several autonomic responses including marked increase in blood pressure, tachycardia-bradycardia, elevation of intracranial pressure, and other hemodynamic and neurologic changes (5). Closely repetitive apneas show not only an acute blood pressure rise with each apnea, but also a gradual rise in baseline blood pressure that is extended well beyond termination of the apneas (6). This suggests that repetitive apneas could lead to a form of secondary systemic hypertension. Snoring and repetitive sleep apnea may be major etiologic contributors to the pool of patients with essential hypertension, and particularly in cases of difficult to manage or refractory hypertension.
