CHF And Sleep Apnea

WESTPORT, Feb 08 (Reuters Health) - Treating sleep apnea in heart failure patients may reduce morbidity and mortality associated with the condition, a US physician reports in the February 1st issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Medical Association.

The reduction in arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation resulting from sleep apnea increases ventricular irritability, Dr. Shahrokh Javaheri, of the VA Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Ohio notes in his paper. He investigated the effect of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) administered to 29 male heart failure patients who on polysomnography showed 15 or more episodes of apnea or hypopnea per hour.

After the treatment, disordered breathing was virtually eliminated in 16 of the 29 patients, reducing the mean apnea-hypopnea index from 36 to 4 per hour, the researcher reports. Arousal index and oxygen saturation were also improved.

Further, ventricular arrhythmias in patients whose disordered breathing responded to CPAP decreased. This was probably mediated "by decreased sympathetic activity secondary to the decrease in the number of arousals and improved saturation," Dr. Javaheri notes.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Dr. Javaheri said that about 50% of heart failure patients have sleep apnea. "We hope that long term treatment of heart failure patients with sleep apnea, using CPAP or any other modality, may improve the quality of life for these patients," he said.

"Sleep apnea has many symptoms that overlap with heart failure, such as tiredness," he added, "so it is important for doctors to consider this in their diagnosis, and treat accordingly."

Circulation 2000:101;392-397.

-Westport Newsroom 203 319 2700