Obstructive Sleep Apnea

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Abstract
Along with the epidemic of obesity, there is a growing awareness of sleep-disordered breathing as a potential and treatable risk factor for cardiovascular disease.1-4 The repetitive nocturnal hypoxemia experienced by patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with activation of a number of neural, humoral, thrombotic, metabolic, and inflammatory disease mechanisms, all of which have also been implicated in the pathophysiology of cardiac and vascular disease. Activation of these mechanisms is often evident even in patients with OSA who are free of overt cardiovascular disease, suggesting that OSA may conceivably contribute to the initiation and progression of cardiovascular disease (Figure 1).