| First Author [ref.] | Study design | Subjects n | Population characteristics | Main findings |
| Observational studies | ||||
| Tilkian [72] | OBS | 15 | OSA | 93% sleep sinus arrhythmia 40% extreme sleep bradycardia (<30 beats·min−1) 33% asystole 2.5–6.3 s 13% grade II AV block |
| Zwillich [26] | OBS | 6 | SDB | Bradycardia occurred during 95% of all apnoea related oxygen desaturations Bradycardia was prevented by oxygen administration |
| Guilleminault [23] | OBS | 400 | OSA | 11% prevalence of bradycardia 11% prevalence of sinus arrest lasting 2.5–13 s 8% prevalence of second degree AV block |
| Koehler [25] | OBS | 16 | OSA and nocturnal heart block, without electrophysiological abnormalities | Bradyarrhythmias are associated with REM sleep and desaturations ≥4% |
| Becker [73] | OBS | 239 | OSA | 7.5% prevalence of bradyarrhythmias in OSA 20% prevalence of bradyarrhythmias for AHI >60 events·h−1 |
| Simantirakis [77] | OBS | 23 | Moderate and severe OSA | 34% prevalence of bradyarrhythmias, mostly nocturnal |
| Garrigue [76] | OBS | 98 | Patients paced for: dilated cardiomyopathy (29%), high-degree AV block (34%) sinus node disease (37%) | 59% had SDB, 21.4% had AHI >30 events·h−1 68% prevalence of SDB in patients with AV block, 58% in patients with sinus node disease, 50% in patients with heart failure |
| Craig [70] | RCT | 83 | OSA Therapeutic CPAP versus sub-therapeutic CPAP | 42.2% prevalence of sinus pause 12% prevalence of bradycardia |
| Olmetti [11] | OBS | 257 | OSA | 7.8% prevalence of bradyarrhythmias for AHI >30 events·h−1 1.5% prevalence of bradyarrhythmias for AHI <30 events·h−1 |
| Interventional studies | ||||
| Tilkian [72] | INT | 15 | OSA | Atropine partially and tracheostomy almost completely prevent bradyarrhythmias during sleep |
| Becker [73] | INT | 239 | OSA | 80–90% reduction of heart block with CPAP treatment |
| Koehler [25] | INT | 16 | OSA and nocturnal heart block, without electrophysiological abnormalities | CPAP reducing bradyarrhythmias by 56% |
| Simantirakis [77] | INT | 23 | OSA | CPAP treatment abolished bradyarrhythmias after 6 months |
| Craig [70] | RCT | 83 | OSA Therapeutic CPAP versus sub-therapeutic CPAP | CPAP does not affect the frequency of bradyarrhythmias |
| Abe [60] | INT | 1350 | OSA | CPAP significantly prevented the occurrence of sinus bradycardia and sinus pause |
| 44 | no SDB | |||
OBS: observational study; OSA: obstructive sleep apnoea; AV: atrio-ventricular; SDB: sleep disordered breathing; REM: rapid eye movement; AHI: apnoea/hypopnoea index; RCT: randomised controlled trial; CPAP: continuous positive airway pressure; INT: interventional uncontrolled study.