PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Holger Woehrle AU - Gerhard Weinreich AU - Michael Arzt AU - Olaf Oldenburg AU - Karl Wegscheider AU - Erland Erdmann AU - Helmut Teschler TI - Gender-dependent characteristics of sleep-disordered breathing in chronic heart failure DP - 2011 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - p1750 VI - 38 IP - Suppl 55 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1750.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1750.full SO - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38 AB - Background: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and influences the progression of the disease. Large multi-centre studies are missing yet.Methods: In the ongoing prospective multi-centre SchlaHF registry we studied so far 1,273 CHF patients diagnosed by gold standard polysomnography (PSG). New York Heart Association (NYHA) class was ≥II and left-ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤45%. Patients were screened with a two-channel device and referred to a sleep laboratory in case of suspected SDB. Using PSG we studied sleep and SDB characteristics in these referred CHF patients. SDB was defined as apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) >15/h.Results: Gender-dependent sleep efficiency was similar in central sleep apnea (CSA) (m: 75.6%, f: 76.2%, n.s.), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (m: 73.8%, f: 70.4%, n.s.) and in patients without SDB (m: 76.0%, f: 73.9%, n.s.). The same results we found for sleep duration in CSA (m: 317min, f: 324min, n.s.), OSA (m: 313min, f: 294min, n.s.) and no SDB (m: 320min, f: 312min, n.s.). We studied AHI in CSA (m: 38.1/h, f: 32.6/h, n.s.), OSA (m: 38.0/h, f: 34.9/h, n.s.) and in patients without SDB (m: 8.5/h, f: 9.0/h, n.s.). Significant gender-dependent differences were found in the respiratory subindices: apnea-index (AI) in CSA (m: 23.8/h, f: 14.5/h, p<0.05), OSA (m: 22.4/h, f: 14.5/h, p<0.05) and in patients without SDB (m: 3.7/h, f: 3.2/h, n.s).Conclusions: In the SchlaHF registry sleep duration and sleep efficiency were similar both in men and women regarding CSA, OSA and patients without SDB. Gender-dependent differences were found in the subindices AI and HI.