Obstructive Sleep Apnea Found to Increase Risk of Sick Sinus Syndrome, unravels study

OSA is a prevalent sleeping disorder that features recurring blockage of the airway while one is asleep and subsequent periods of intermittent lack of oxygen. SSS, on the other hand, refers to a wrong rhythm of the heart due to defective sinoatrial node function that leads to dizziness, drowsiness, and syncope. Both these diseases have risks of effects on cardiovascular performance, thus it is vital to identify whether one directly affects the other while designing prevention strategies and treatment procedures.

To establish the causal relationship between OSA and SSS, the researchers used a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) strategy. The technique utilizes genetic differences as instrumental variables to assess causality between an exposure (OSA) and an outcome (SSS), thus eliminating confounding factors.

Genetic information on OSA were accessed from FinnGen genome-wide association studies with a sample of 410,385 participants. Equivalently, SSS association data were from deCODE genetics with a population base of 1,000,187 individuals. The group used various statistical methods for ensuring robustness such as inverse-variance weighting (IVW), MR-Egger regression, weighted median estimation, maximum likelihood, and MR-PRESSO for sensitivity analysis and identification of pleiotropy.