In patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is found to be about 14-65%. In this study, the influence of OSA in 50 patients with CAD was prospectively compared during a follow-up period of 10 years. In the follow-up period 4 of 25 patients with OSA and 5 of the 25 without OSA died by cardiovascular complications. The proportion survival curve showed no significant difference for patients with CAD and with versus without OSA. The results of this rather small 10-year follow-up study failed to give further evidence for an increased mortality in patients with CAD and OSA.