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Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome

Nature Reviews Disease Primers volume 1, Article number: 15015 (2015) Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 30 July 2015

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is a common clinical condition in which the throat narrows or collapses repeatedly during sleep, causing obstructive sleep apnoea events. The syndrome is particularly prevalent in middle-aged and older adults. The mechanism by which the upper airway collapses is not fully understood but is multifactorial and includes obesity, craniofacial changes, alteration in upper airway muscle function, pharyngeal neuropathy and fluid shift towards the neck. The direct consequences of the collapse are intermittent hypoxia and hypercapnia, recurrent arousals and increase in respiratory efforts, leading to secondary sympathetic activation, oxidative stress and systemic inflammation. Excessive daytime sleepiness is a burden for the majority of patients. OSAS is also associated with cardiovascular co-morbidities, including hypertension, arrhythmias, stroke, coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis and overall increased cardiovascular mortality, as well as metabolic dysfunction. Whether treating sleep apnoea can fully reverse its chronic consequences remains to be established in adequately designed studies. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the primary treatment modality in patients with severe OSAS, whereas oral appliances are also widely used in mild to moderate forms. Finally, combining different treatment modalities such as CPAP and weight control is beneficial, but need to be evaluated in randomized controlled trials. For an illustrated summary of this Primer, visit: http://go.nature.com/Lwc6te

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Figure 1: Maxillofacial and soft tissue changes occurring in OSAS.
Figure 2: Global prevalence of sleep apnoea.
Figure 3: Schematic outlining the hypothesized pathways by which intermittent hypoxia activates the autonomic nervous system and leads to hypertension.
Figure 4: Oxidative stress promotes sympathetic activation, cellular and systemic inflammation, and vascular co-morbidities in OSAS.
Figure 5: Role of obesity in OSAS.
Figure 6: Polysomnography.
Figure 7: Contribution of fluid shift to upper airway collapsibility in the pathogenesis of OSAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Grenoble University Hospital, Sleep Laboratory, BP 53, Grenoble, 38041, Cedex 9, France

    Patrick Lévy & Jean-Louis Pépin

  2. Hypoxia-Pathophysiology Laboratory (HP2), University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Patrick Lévy & Jean-Louis Pépin

  3. Department of Pulmonology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Malcolm Kohler

  4. Pulmonary and Sleep Disorders Unit, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Walter T. McNicholas

  5. Respiratory Department, Arnau de Vilanova and Santa Maria University Hospital, Leida, Spain

    Ferran Barbé

  6. Respiratory Research Group, CIBERES, Madrid, Spain

    Ferran Barbé

  7. Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health, Adelaide, Australia

    R. Doug McEvoy

  8. Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA

    Virend K. Somers

  9. The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Unit of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Lena Lavie

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  1. Patrick Lévy
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  3. Walter T. McNicholas
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  8. Jean-Louis Pépin
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Contributions

Introduction (P.L.); Epidemiology (W.T.M.); Mechanisms/pathophysiology (L.L., J.-L.P. and V.K.S.); Diagnosis, screening and prevention (M.K.); Management (J.-L.P. and D.M.); Quality of life (F.B.); Outlook (P.L.); and overview of the Primer (P.L.).

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Correspondence to Patrick Lévy.

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Lévy, P., Kohler, M., McNicholas, W. et al. Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. Nat Rev Dis Primers 1, 15015 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2015.15

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