Prevalence of sleep breathing disorders in outpatients on a heart transplant waiting list.

Sleep related periodic breathing with recurrent episodes of apnea and hypopnea is known to occur in patients with heart failure. We investigated the prevalence of sleep related breathing disorders (SRBD) in 14 outpatients on a heart transplant waiting list. All were younger than 60 years and had severe stable heart failure. Three patients (21%) exhibited 10 or more apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep; these apneas and hypopneas were predominantly of the central type and occurred during Cheyne-Stokes respiration. There were no statistically significant differences between the apneic and non-apneic group in terms of age, left ventricular ejection fraction or pulmonary function tests. The group with SRBD had worse quality of life and less tolerance to exercise.