Monneret D, et al. - The long-term evolution of the serum lipid profile was investigated. Furthermore, the physicians examined its relationships with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and blood pressure (BP) in the elderly. They proposed that in the elderly, the observed worsening of nocturnal oxygen desaturation after 10 years was independent of the change in circulating lipids, and not influenced by lipid-lowering treatments. The variation in blood pressure, however, remained associated with aging, waist/hip, and LDL-C/HDL-C ratios.

Methods

• This study was a 10-year follow-up of the prospective Prognostic Indicator of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Events (PROOF) and the Autonomic Nervous System Activity, Aging and Sleep Apnea/Hypopnea (SYNAPSE) cohort.
• It initially included 1011 elderly subjects from the general population, and who were untreated by continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).
• The physicians performed serum lipid profile, respiratory polygraphy for SDB and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Results

• The physicians reassessed 266 subjects (male/female 150/116; age 66.2±0.8 years) after 9.6±0.7 years (age 75.8±1.2 years).
• The prevalence of high-risk dyslipidemia decreased from 61.3 to 44.4%, and hypertension from 57.9 to 27.4%.
• While the mean SaO2 and minimal SaO2 decreased, the nocturnal oxygen desaturation index increased (mean +2.3±6.7 events/hour; p<0.001).
• Whether or not elderly subjects took anti-hypertensive and lipid-lowering treatments, these variations (Δ) of oxygen desaturation worsened and were not associated with serum lipid variations.
• While the decrease in diurnal systolic BP only depended on aging and Δ W/H, the decrease in diurnal diastolic BP was independently associated with aging, and with the lowering of the waist/hip ratio (Δ W/H) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio.