anyone have sleep apnea and related heart enlargement?

I'm not aware that sleep apnea, on its own, can cause hypertrophy of the atria and ventricles. That's a new one on me. What does cause enlargement are hypertension and arrhythmias. OSA is often found in patients with those two problems, so there is a strong association. Causation is more difficult to pin-point. In my case, severe sleep apnea caused atrial fibrillation, and THAT is what began to cause my left atrium's walls to thicken, also known as hypertrophy. My cardiologist put me on metoprolol because, he explained, my blood pressure had been rising some and it was creeping into the 'high' range. The higher BP in an otherwise fit athletic man would have stemmed from the OSA almost certainly. Metoprolol reduces blood volume in each contraction by making the contractions a bit weaker. Of course it also slowed my heart, especially when I was fibrillating...or so the science said. Didn't seem to work all that well.
Depending on other problems not shared, if OSA is well controlled, you should get little wall thickening and no CHF. But, if an arrhythmia went undetected for several years, then yeah, hypertrophy/enlargement is a danger after some time. In your case, it's not the left side we're dealing with, but the right side:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/23576-right-atrial-enlargement. There are other causes discussed in that link, and respiratory problems is the last linked. So, it could still be the OSA, but was your pulmonary tension checked out?

Thank you for responding. I do have high blood pressure, but my doctor insists my dilated cardiomyopathy was caused by my sleep apnea. Of course he also only told me that it was the right ventricle and that the right side of the heart doesn't really do anything (see my comments on needing a new cardiologist in previous post).

My research on the subject for my 'internet doctorate' on the subject showed that sleep apnea is associated with dilation (I don't remember if I specified that it is dilation rather than thickening of heart, my bad: both are referred to as enlarged heart) of the right side of the heart. Could be with the left side as well. I could refresh my learnin' on the subject as to the mechanism, but it's 5:00 am here and I don't especially want to. I do recall it has something to do with increased blood pressure going to the lungs known as pulmonary hypertension caused by the body freaking out about not breathing and occurs over years of uncontrolled apnea. That back pressure stretches the muscle and the thinned out muscle has problems with the impulses that cause contraction. Various arrhythmias, including cardiac arrest can result.

I hope to hear more from people with sleep apnea related cardiomyopathy, such as yourself, to make informed lifestyle choices. I know losing weight and continuing taking my blood pressure meds are a good start.

Thanks again for responding.

The thickening often happens in the left ventricle that is trying to respond to the poor circulation over time, and that poor circulation is due to the dilation of the left atrium, and possibly due to mitral valve defect, the latter part of the hypertension problem. So, you are correct in that the left atrium expands, and in doing so it most often thins the vessel walls while it expands. Dilation. This weakened structure doesn't fill the left ventricle well, especially if the expansion/dilation stretches the annulus around the mitral valve and affects the closure of that valve. If the valve doesn't sit properly and is kept somewhat open, then when the left ventricle contracts to force blood up into the aorta, it also pushes some of that volume back through the mitral valve and into the left atrium on the other side of the valve. The ventricle is the more powerful of the two, and its force will cause the left atrium, which might be out of sequence in fibrillations or in premature contractions, to balloon. It's bad enough that they often fight each other in fibrillation or in PACs/PVCs when they contract at the same time, but if the atrium is relaxed when the ventricle contracts, and it forces a good bit of blood into the atrium through the defective mitral valve, it can stretch the walls of the left atrium.

Hi All I also have AFIB an sleep Apnea going to have the Inspire this month they said it will take 2-3 month to adjust will keep you guys posted

Please do. I'm sure all of us reading hope you report back, but also with great news. 😀

Yes I will

It's nice to see that so many folks on this site take their conditions seriously enough to educate themselves about the effects of their health conditions. I am new to the site and I am impressed. I feel optimistic that I will get practical and informed info gleaned from real people's real life experiences.

I expected more folks to have similar issues as myself, since my doctor acts as if this no big deal and has offered no real explanation or prognosis, nor has he given any recommendations as to things I can do to improve or maintain my heart health. These issues with my doctor(s) really frustrate me! I get this feeling from my primary doctor as well.

I have an upcoming appointment with my cardiologist next week and it will be with his PA. I am cautiously hopeful that with a written list of questions I can get a few answers. If and when I do i will share them here.

PS: gloaming: good catch on the pulmonary hypertension angle. I forgot to credit you for this till I posted. This is my problem. I learned about it on the internet, not from my doctor. If I weren't so well internet educated you would have been the first to point me in the right direction. Thank you.

I have had sleep apnea for several years but it has been controlled with the machine. Usually only one event per hour at night. However I have also had mitral valve prolapse with regurgitation for several years also. Recently that has caused my left atrium to severely enlarge. Next week I am scheduled to have a catheterization procedure to place a mitraclip on the mitral valve to stop the leakage and regurgitation. I hope it works.

I know nobody wants to think in terms other than they're unique (well....you ARE!). But these problems are rampant globally, and we in the west enjoy the very best science, engineering, and technology going, including valve repair in the heart. I feel optimistic about you and your eventual success, and I hope I can shed some optimism on you. It will be good. Not good waiting to get there, but once it's done, you'll feel better. I have read that, once a defect in rhythm and valve disorder are ameliorated, the enlargement naturally reverses....some. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Each patient is different. So, you'll also fix your enlarged chamber, even if just modestly. But that valve MUST BE fixed first.