Short-term antihypertensive medication does not exacerbate sleep-disordered
breathing in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients.
Author(s): Bartel PR, Loock M, Becker P, Robinson E, van der Meyden C, Rossouw S.
Affiliation(s): Department of Neurology, University of Pretoria and HF Verwoerd Hospital, South
Africa.
Publication date & source: 1997, Am J Hypertens. , 10(6):640-5
It has been speculated for some time that various antihypertensive medications
may have a deleterious effect on respiration during sleep and thereby enhance the
apparent association between hypertension and sleep apnea/hypopnea (SAH).
However, there are few data to support this contention. The present study used a
double-blind, randomized, cross-over design to contrast the effects of 6 weeks
treatment with alpha-methyldopa and the combination of hydrochlorothiazide and
amiloride with that of amlodipine and the combined diuretics in a group of 24
newly diagnosed patients with primary hypertension. All-night polysomnography was
performed before the initiation of therapy (baseline) and at the end of the two
treatment periods. Respiratory variables failed to reveal any significant
differences between the treatments and baseline, or between the two different
treatment regimens. The two treatment regimens achieved similar reductions in
blood pressure. The prevalence of SAH was 25% before treatment, which is
comparable to a prevalence of 20% in a similar group drawn from the same
population but receiving various antihypertensive medications. The findings of
this study are in agreement with previous reports using other classes of
antihypertensive drugs that also failed to detect any tendency for increases in
nocturnal respiratory disturbance indices over assessment periods of 8 weeks or
shorter.
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