Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor, we read with great interst the "Opinion" recently published by Dr. Joshua Marc on this Journal [1]. The written of the author clearly evidences the same concepts expressed by an our previous study [2]. Indeed, we found, in a total population of 185 OSA subjects (19 normal weight, 57 overweight, 109 obeses), the percentage of cardiovascular risk was related with BMI (r = 0.33; P < .001), but not with AHI, while the Epworth Questionnaire score and the Charlson Co-morbidity Index were respectively statistically higher in the group of obese individuals (P = .004, P = .0002) than in the other two subgroups. When AHI values were stratified in tertiles, the percentage cardiovascular risk did not change with increasing AHI values. The results from this publication shows the lack of a clear relationship between the severity of OSA and the extent of cardiovascular risk. Among our OSA population, we showed that the percentage of cardiovascular risk was related with Body Mass Index (BMI) but not with Apnea/hypopnea index (AHI). Therefore, the severity of OSA does not seem to increase, per se, the cardiovascular risk. Further studies are required to better address the crucial role of increased BMI in the sistemi inflammation and in the severity of atherosclerosis, which are definitely utmost important to develop the cardiovascular risk.

Funding Sources

None.

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

1. Joshua Marc (2022) Weight Loss Critical to Reduce Burden of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Obese Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. J Obes Weight Loss Ther 12:487.
2. Carratù P, Di Ciaula A, Dragonieri S, Ranieri T, Matteo Ciccone M, et al. (2021) Relationships between Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and cardiovascular risk in a naïve population of southern Italy. Int J Clin Pract 75: e1495.

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