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The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) in ischaemic stroke patients followed for 2 yrs.Stroke patients with an apnoea-hypopnoea index o20 events?h -1 were randomised to early nCPAP (n571; 3-6 days after stroke onset) or conventional treatment (n569). The Barthel Index, Canadian Scale, Rankin Scale and Short Form-36 were measured at baseline, and at 1, 3, 12 and 24 months. The percentage of patients with neurological improvement 1 month after stroke was significantly higher in the nCPAP group (Rankin scale 90.9 versus 56.3% (p,0.01); Canadian scale 88.2 versus 72.7% (p,0.05)). The mean time until the appearance of cardiovascular events was longer in the nCPAP group (14.9 versus 7.9 months; p50.044), although cardiovascular event-free survival after 24 months was similar in both groups. The cardiovascular mortality rate was 0% in the nCPAP group and 4.3% in the control group (p50.161).Early use of nCPAP seems to accelerate neurological recovery and to delay the appearance of cardiovascular events, although an improvement in patients' survival or quality of life was not shown.

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SUMMARYThe main purpose of the present analysis is to assess the influence of introducing early nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) treatment on cardiovascular recurrences and mortality in patients with a first-ever ischaemic stroke and moderate-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥20 events h À1 during a 5-year follow-up. Patients received conventional treatment for stroke and were assigned randomly to the nCPAP group (n = 71) or the control group (n = 69). Cardiovascular events and mortality were registered for all patients. Survival and cardiovascular event-free survival analysis were performed after 5-year follow-up using the Kaplan-Meier test. Patients in the nCPAP group had significantly higher cardiovascular survival than the control group (100 versus 89.9%, log-rank test 5.887; P = 0.015) However, and also despite a positive tendency, there were no significant differences in the cardiovascular event-free survival at 68 months between the nCPAP and control groups (89.5 versus 75.4%, log-rank test 3.565; P = 0.059). Early nCPAP therapy has a positive effect on long-term survival in ischaemic stroke patients and moderate-severe OSA.

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