Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The prevalence of sleep disordered breathing in people with left ventricular failure has been reported at 40-60%1.We wanted to look at night to night variations in sleep disordered breathing in a cohort of patients referred for biventricular pacemaker for heart failure (HF) according to national guidelines. 2
METHODS
Prospective, Observational study.
24 patients (19 males), with NYHA category 3-4, mean (SD) Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction =25 (7)%, QRS duration > 120 msec on ECG; all were deemed on optimal medical treatment for their HF by a Cardiologist. They had limited channel sleep studies (Apnea LinkTM ResMed, Abingdon, UK) for two consecutive nights, 7 days prior to elective implant biventricular pacemaker at a UK tertiary center. We compared the 2 sleep studies in all patients.
RESULTS
Night 1 versus Night 2, AHI correlation: Spearman's rho =0.745, p=0.001
Cronbach's Alpha=0.84 for repeatability.
CONCLUSION
There is no significant variation over two consecutive nights in sleep breathing patterns in those with severe HF who awaiting biventricular pacemaker. We recommend that one night of sleep study is reliable to diagnose sleep disordered breathing in patients with severe HF.
REFERENCES
1. Eur.Resp.J.2007.Jun:29(6)1201-5
2. www.nice.org.uk/TA120.
- © 2014 ERS