'A single night' beneficial effects of adaptive servo-ventilation on cardiac overload, sympathetic nervous activity, and myocardial damage in patients with chronic heart failure and sleep-disordered breathing.

BACKGROUND

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), including Cheyne-Stokes respiration with central sleep apnea (CSR-CSA), causes a deterioration in the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) and oxygen therapy (O(2)) are useful for improving the CSR-CSA of CHF. The purpose of the present study was to examine the short-term effects of ASV and O(2) on suppressing SDB (CSR-CSA dominant) in CHF, and the accompanying neurohumoral abnormalities (cardiac overload, sympathetic nervous activation, and myocardial damage).

METHODS AND

RESULTS

FORTY-two patients with CHF and SDB (mean LVEF 34.6%, apnea hypopnea index (AHI) 39.0/h, central apnea index (CAI) 17.6/h, obstructive apnea index (OAI) 2.6/h) were enrolled. We performed polysomnography (baseline, O(2), and ASV) for 3 consecutive days, and we measured levels of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), noradrenalin, urinary catecholamines, and high-sensitivity troponin T. Both O(2) and ASV reduced the AHI, CAI, arousal index, mean heart rate during sleep, and the levels of noradrenalin, urinary catecholamines, and high-sensitivity troponin T. However, only ASV, not O(2), decreased the levels of ANP and BNP.

CONCLUSIONS

ASV reduces cardiac overload, attenuates sympathetic nervous activity and ongoing myocardial damage effectively in CHF patients with SDB, and for patients who cannot use ASV, O(2) is an alternative therapy.