Editorial Comment Comment accompanying: obstructive sleep apnoea: a stand-alone risk

Sleep apnoea (SA) is a high priority health problem be-cause it disrupts sleep and reduces quality of life, it is associated with obesity, hypertension, especially resistant hypertension, congestive heart failure, diabetes and it en-genders cardiovascular (CV) complications and death. The following types of apnoea can be distinguished: (i) obstructive, (ii) central (i.e. neurally mediated) and (iii) mixed. Obstructive SA (OSA) is characterized by a ces-sation of airflow caused by occlusion of the oropharyngeal tract and central SA by a transient abolition of the neural drive to respiratory muscles. Mixed apnoea represents a combination of the two forms. SA is one of the most important triggers of high sympathetic activity and it is perhaps the most important non-traditional risk facto