Observational study reveals sleep disordered breathing correlates with appropriate defibrillator shocks in heart failure, suggesting nighttime breathing problems trigger ventricular arrhythmias.
BACKGROUND: Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are increasingly employed in patients affected by congestive heart failure (CHF) and sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is frequent in this population. HYPOTHESIS: To investigate SDB prevalence and influence on appropriate ICD discharges in CHF patients. METHODS: A total of 22 consecutive ICD patients with systolic CHF (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF]< 45%) were studied by polysomnography. RESULTS: A total of 17 (77.2%) showed SDB (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI]_ 10 events/hour). After controlling for LVEF and New York Heart Association (NYHA) class, AHI and severity of hypoxia during sleep results correlated to appropriate ICD discharges (r = 0.718; P < .001, r = - 0.619; P = .003, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Sleep disordered breathing is frequent in ICD recipients due to left systolic ventricular dysfunction and may increase the risk of ventricular arrhythmia and appropriate ICD discharges.
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Tomaello et al. (2009) studied this question.
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