OSA is one of the acknowledged risk factors for HT. Our findings indicate that morning DBP was associated with the severity of disordered breathing during sleep in apparently
non-hypertensive patients (ie, those without any previous diagnosis, nor treated for HT, with a presumptive diagnosis of OSA). This effect was independent of age, degree of obesity, or sex. However, our results may have been biased by the fact that some patients in the non-hypertensive group were actually naïve-hypertensive according to the standard diagnostic criteria. In a recent study, Ma et al. showed that BP 24-hour profiles were associated with the severity of OSA in a non-obese population.
Similarly, the results of a linear regression model used in the current study suggest that the effect of OSA severity on morning BP may be independent of obesity, defined by high BMI. In addition, the effect of an increment of BMI by 1 kg/m2 seems to be similar to the effect of an increment of AHI by 1 event/h. The current study is one of the first to report such a relationship, and to directly compare the influence of obesity and OSA on morning DBP.
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