Six-month aerobic exercise training ameliorates central sleep apnea in patients with chronic heart failure.
BACKGROUND
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is common in patients with heart failure and carries an independent risk for poor long-term prognosis. We aimed to study the effects of supervised, aerobic exercise training for 6 months on SDB in patients with chronic heart failure.


RESULTS
We enrolled 18 patients having both systolic dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction <45%) and SDB (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] >10). The exercise group comprised 10 patients who participated in our cardiac rehabilitation program for 6 months, and the remaining 8 patients served as control. AHI (median [interquartile range]) was unchanged in the control group patients at 6-month intervals (30.4 [19.9-36.3] versus 36.6 [8.6-39.4], NS). In contrast, AHI was significantly decreased in the exercise group from 24.9 [19.2-37.1] to 8.8 [5.3-10.1] (P < .01). In the exercise group, the numbers of central sleep apnea per night was significantly decreased (152 [124-244] versus 50 [24-67], P < .01) after exercise training, but those of obstructive apnea/hypopnea were unchanged (42 [7-94] versus 18 [7-54], NS). In addition, exercise training significantly increased peak oxygen consumption and decreased minute ventilation to carbon dioxide production slope (both P < .01).


CONCLUSIONS
Six-month, aerobic exercise training increased exercise capacity and improved central sleep apnea in patients with chronic heart failure from systolic dysfunction.
Yamamoto
Umpei
U
Department of Cardiology, Kyushu Kosei-Nenkin Hospital, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Mohri
Masahiro
M
Shimada
Kaoru
K
Origuchi
Hideki
H
Miyata
Kenji
K
Ito
Koji
K
Abe
Kohtaro
K
Yamamoto
Hideo
H
D000368:Aged; D001944:Breath Tests; D005080:Exercise Test; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D020182:Sleep Apnea, Central / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome