Is myocardial strain an early marker of systolic dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnoea? Findings from a meta-analysis of echocardiographic studies

Aim: We investigated the association between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and subclinical systolic dysfunction through a meta-analysis of echocardiographic studies that provided data on left ventricular (LV) mechanics as assessed by global longitudinal strain (GLS). Design: The PubMed, OVID-MEDLINE, and Cochrane library databases were systematically analyzed to search English-language articles published from inception to 31 December 2021. Studies were detected by using the following terms: ‘obstructive sleep apnea’, ‘sleep quality’, ‘sleep disordered breathing’, ‘cardiac damage’, ‘left ventricular hypertrophy’, ‘systolic dysfunction’, ‘global longitudinal strain’, ‘left ventricular mechanics’, ‘echocardiography’ and ‘speckle tracking echocardiography’. Results: The meta-analysis included 889 patients with OSA and 364 non-OSA controls from 12 studies. Compared with controls, GLS was significantly reduced in the pooled OSA group (SMD −1.24 ± 0.17, CI: −1.58 to −0.90, P 
Source: Journal of Hypertension - Category: Cardiology Tags: REVIEW Source Type: research