Sleep apnoea could protect heart attack patients – study

Tuesday 8th January 2013

It has previously been thought that people who suffer from sleep apnoea – a sleep disorder that intermittently prevents breathing during sleep – are usually at a higher risk of suffering from a cardiovascular disease, however a new study at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has found that some heart attack patients can in fact benefit from mild to moderate sleep apnoea or other sleep-disordered breathing.

The scientists looked at 40 male patients who were a mix of healthy sleepers and sufferers of sleep apnoea, who had had a heart attack in the days leading up to the study. Blood samples of all the patients were tested and the results found that the patients with the sleep disorder had noticeably higher level of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which increases new blood vessels and repair the injured heart, than the healthy sleepers. They also had higher levels of other growth-promoting proteins and immune cells that encourage blood vessel production.

In the future the findings could help predict which patients are at a greater risk after suffering from a heart attack or other heart related problems. It could even suggest ways to help rebuild damaged heart tissue.
 

Tags: sleep apnoea heart cardiovascular

Category: Sleep Research

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