The Relationship between Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Atrial Fibrillation: A Complex Interplay

Table 3

Does CPAP improve AF outcomes?

Investigator	Number of patients	Follow-up period (months)	Methods	Results
Anter et al. (2012) [76]	426	26±18	Prospective consecutive patients	After PVI, 72% of the CPAP patients and 62% of the non-CPAP patients were free of AF (𝑃=0.005)
Abe et al. (2010) [77]	1394	N/A	Prospective trial	CPAP significantly reduced the occurrences of paroxysmal AF (𝑃<0.001)
Patel et al. (2010) [78]	640 OSA patients, 2360 controls	32±14	Prospective consecutive patients	After PVI, 79% of CPAP users compared to 68% of non-CPAP users were free of AF (𝑃=0.003)
Kanagala et al. (2003) [72]	39 OSA patients, 79 controls	12	Prospective trial	Recurrence on CPAP was 42% versus 82% in non-CPAP group (𝑃=0.013); and 53% in controls (𝑃=0.009)

CPAP: continuous positive airway pressure; PVI: pulmonary vein isolation.