Backgrounds: Epidemiologic studies have shown strong association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Pulse wave velocity, a good indicator of arterial stiffness and cardiovascular events, increases in patient with OSA. However the therapeutic effect of uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP) for OSA on arterial stiffness remained undetermined.
Methods: Twenty OSA patients who performed UPPP were enrolled. Before surgery, epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), respiratory distress index (RDI), brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured. And 3 month after surgery, we followed up the
baPWV and blood pressure.
Results: Our results showed that baPWV in OSA patient were positively correlated with systolic, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and age (r=0.672, p=0.001; r=0.700, p=0.001; r=0.621, p=0.04; r=0.565, p=0.009, respectively), but not with BMI, RDI, ESS (P=NS). After 3 months of UPPP, baPWV tended to decrease without significance (1481 ± 331 to 1419 ± 280 cm/sec, p= 0.58,) and there were no significant changes of blood pressure and heart rate.
Conclusions: Although the precise mechanism for reduction of baPWV on OSA patient is unclear, our pilot study may suggest the possibility of beneficial effect of UPPP on arterial stiffness. Further large populated and long-term prospective studies are needed for investigation about the effect of UPPP for OSA on arterial stiffness.
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