Sleep-disordered breathing in patients with decompensated heart failure.

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has a higher prevalence in patients with heart failure than in the general middle-aged population. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), one of the forms of SBD, promotes poorly controlled hypertension, coronary events, and atrial fibrillation events that can lead to acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF), and evidence suggests that untreated OSA increases mortality in patients with heart failure. Cheyne-Stokes respiration and central sleep apnea (CSA) have long been associated with heart failure and, in many patients, can coexist with OSA. In this article, we propose a systematic approach to diagnose and treat OSA in patients with ADHF based on current evidence.