Severe sleep-disordered breathing is linked with stiffening of the arteries’ walls and may be related to the development of heart failure. This is according to a recent study in ESC Heart Failure, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology.

In the study, arterial stiffness increased according to the severity of sleep-disordered breathing in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

“We hope that CPAP may improve not only hypertension but also arterial stiffness, and lead to improvements in the prognosis of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction,” says co-author Dr Akiomi Yoshihisa, of Fukushima Medical University in Japan in a release.