29 Jun Sleep Disturbances Associated With Development of PAD

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Mako Nagayoshi

Mako Nagayoshi, Ph.D, Assistant Professor
Department of Community Medicine,
Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Science
Nagasaki Japan

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response:  Sleep apnea is a common in the US adult population; approximately 13% of men and 6% of women have moderate to severe sleep apnea. Short sleep duration also is highly prevalent in the population. Numerous biological pathways linking sleep disturbances to atherosclerosis have been identified, such as insulin resistance, inflammation, hypertension, and endothelial dysfunction. Yet, the association of sleep apnea and sleep duration with peripheral artery disease (PAD) is not well characterized.

This study provides some of first evidence that there is an association between sleep apnea and prevalent and incident PAD, with evidence for stronger associations with objectively measured sleep apnea and cross sectional PAD in blacks. In addition, short and long sleep duration were associated with PAD. These results identify sleep disturbances as a potential risk factor for PAD.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Readers should recognize that both sleep apnea and sleep quantity may influence peripheral atherosclerosis development.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Although the sample was quite large for a study using objective sleep and PAD measurements, limitation of this study includes the limited number of prevalent and incident PAD cases, and a possible influence of survival bias in cross-sectional analyses and misclassification related to self-reported OSA diagnosis in prospective analyses.

Future prospective research of a large multi-racial/ethnic population-based samples, which is based on objective measurements for sleep apnea and sleep duration, like polysomnography and actigraphy, may confirm our results and clarify the race/ethnic difference in those associations.

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Response: PAD affects approximately 8.5 million Americans (7.2% of the population) aged 40 years or older and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, as well as reduced quality of life. Our results suggest that sleep apnea prevention and having a healthy sleep duration could be beneficial to prevent PAD.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

Association of sleep apnea and sleep duration with peripheral artery disease: The Multi-Ethic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
Nagayoshi, Mako et al. June 24, 2016

Atherosclerosis , Volume 0 , Issue 0
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2016.06.040

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Last Updated on July 1, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD