Researchers reviewed and combined data from previous studies to see if positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy, a common treatment for sleep apnea, affects pressure in the arteries of the lungs. They looked at 733 patients who had either severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) or a related condition called obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS).
The analysis found that, on average, PAP therapy was linked to a reduction in lung artery pressure. The reduction was more noticeable in the group of patients who already had high lung pressure, known as pulmonary hypertension, before starting therapy. The review did not report on side effects or how well patients tolerated the treatment.
It is important to be careful with these results. The studies included were very different from each other, and the overall quality of the evidence is considered low. This means we cannot be sure how strong the effect really is. Also, most patients in these studies had severe sleep apnea, so the findings may not apply to people with milder forms of the condition. Readers should see this as an early signal that needs confirmation from more consistent, high-quality research.