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(HealthDay News) — Sleep apnea is prevalent among 35 percent of cardio-oncology patients, and those with untreated sleep apnea have significantly abnormal Global Longitudinal Left Ventricular (LV) Strain (GLS), according to a study presented at the Advancing the Cardiovascular Care of the Oncology Patient conference organized by the American College of Cardiology and held from Feb. 9 to 11 in Washington, D.C.
Mini K. Das, M.D., from Baptism Health in Louisville, Kentucky, and colleagues collected data from 296 general cardiology patients and 240 cardio-oncology patients to examine the prevalence and impact of sleep apnea.
The researchers found that the prevalence of sleep apnea was 54 percent in general cardiology patients and 35 percent among the cardio-oncology patients. In the cardio-oncology patients, sleep apnea prevalence was higher than several traditional risk factors used in cardiovascular risk stratification for cardiotoxicity. LV ejection fraction was relatively similar for patients with treated or untreated sleep apnea and for those with high scores on the Snoring, Tiredness, Observed apnea, elevated blood Pressure, Body mass index, Age, Neck, Gender (STOP-BANG) screening tool. Patients with untreated sleep apnea and patients with high STOP-BANG scores had significantly abnormal GLS.
“Sleep apnea should be incorporated into current risk algorithms and a larger study is needed to evaluate the impact of sleep apnea in this high-risk population,” Das said in a statement. “We feel that sleep apnea assessment must be a part of routine risk assessment for patients undergoing cancer therapeutics.”
