Prevalence and treatment of breathing disorders during sleep in patients with heart failure.

Heart failure is a highly prevalent disorder, with significant economic impact, and is associated with excess morbidity and mortality. One factor that may contribute to the progressively declining course of heart failure is the occurrence of recurrent episodes of apnea and hypopnea. There are two major kinds of sleep-related breathing disorders: obstructive and central sleep apnea. In patients with heart failure, in contrast to the general population, central sleep apnea is the most common form of sleep-related breathing disorder. Episodes of apnea, hypopnea, and the subsequent hyperpnea cause sleep disruption, arousals, hypoxemia-reoxygenation, hypercapnia/hypocapnia, and changes in intrathoracic pressure. These pathophysiologic consequences of sleep-related breathing disorders have deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system, and may be even more pronounced in the setting of established heart failure and coronary artery disease. Therefore, sleep apnea in heart failure should be treated. Central sleep apnea may be treated with nocturnal supplemental nasal oxygen, theophylline, or nasal-positive pressure devices, such as nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The treatment of choice for obstructive sleep apnea is nasal CPAP. Although long-term controlled trials of the effect of treatment of sleep apnea on mortality in patients with heart failure are still pending, treatment of sleep apnea, both obstructive and central, does result in a decrease in sympathetic activity and an improvement in systolic function, which are known surrogates of mortality. Therefore, diagnosis and treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders may increase survival of patients with heart failure.