[Nocturnal oxygen saturation in patients with coronary heart disease--dependent on degree of left ventricular functional impairment].

It is assumed, that patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) more often suffer from sleep related disorders of breathing than healthy subjects. A relation to an impaired left ventricular performance is discussed. In 40 CHD-patients and 30 cardio-respiratory healthy controls we therefore measured arterial oxygenation during sleep by means of pulse-oximetry. Our results show a marked increase in the frequency of nocturnal oxygen-desaturations along with the degree of impaired left ventricular function independent of a special sleep apnea risk. In case of cardiac insufficiency at rest cyclical oxygen-desaturations were observed ten times as often as in the healthy controls. A central disturbance of the respiratory control, which leads to periodic breathing (type Cheyne-Stokes) has to be discussed. Because of the general high risk of CHD-patients concerning the development of nocturnal complications of their disease, sleep-related disturbances of ventilation have to be detected early by means of routinely applied screening-methods.