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Impact of CPAP treatment for obstructive sleep apnea on visceral adipose tissue: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

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Abstract

Background

It is still controversial if the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can markedly influence an effect on visceral adipose tissue (VAT). The current study aimed to assess the efficacy of CPAP interventions in reducing VAT in OSA patients.

Methods

The Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library (up to December, 2019) were searched for randomized trials that assessed the effect of CPAP therapy in decreasing VAT in OSA patients. Information on the study, pre- and post-CPAP treatment of VAT, and patient characteristics were extracted for analysis. The standardized mean difference (SMD) was applied to measure the summary estimates. The analysis was conducted with STATA 13.0 and RevMan v.5.3.

Results

Five studies (6 cohorts) that involved 169 patients were enrolled in the meta-analysis. There was no significant change of VAT in patients with OSA before and after CPAP treatment (SMD = − 0.00, 95% CI = − 0.21 to 0.21, z = 0.01, p = 0.99). Subgroup analyses further demonstrated that the results were not influenced by CPAP therapy duration, patient age, sample size, or baseline body mass index.

Conclusions

Among the patients with OSA, our meta-analysis revealed that treatment with CPAP does not significantly lead to a reduction of VAT. High-quality randomized controlled trials may provide further clarifying information.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (grant number 81870074), Science and Technology Projects of Quanzhou (grant number 2019N099S), and Startup Fund for Scientific Research, Fujian Medical University (grant number 2017XQ1102).

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Author notes

  1. Qingshi Chen, Guofu Lin and Yongfa Chen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, No. 34 Zhongshan North Road, Licheng District, Quanzhou, 362000, China

    Qingshi Chen, Chunchun Wu & Chaowei Li

  2. Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, No. 20 Chazhong Road, Taijiang District, Fuzhou, 350005, China

    Qingshi Chen, Guofu Lin, Jiefeng Huang & Qichang Lin

  3. The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, No. 55 Zhenhai Road, Siming District, Xiamen, 361001, China

    Yongfa Chen

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  1. Qingshi Chen
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All authors directly participated in the study and have reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

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Chen, Q., Lin, G., Chen, Y. et al. Impact of CPAP treatment for obstructive sleep apnea on visceral adipose tissue: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Sleep Breath 25, 555–562 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-020-02181-3

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