title: A novel approach to the treatment of central sleep apnea in patients with heart failure.
abstract: Central sleep apnea (CSA) is a common, though often unrecognized, finding in congestive heart failure (HF) patients that is associated with poor quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. While various treatment strategies, including continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, have been devised and tested to treat CSA in HF, none thus far have been proven effective over the long term or been shown to improve survival. Adaptive pressure support servo-ventilation (ASV) is a promising potential new therapy for CSA, but like its predecessor, CPAP, it is often not well tolerated by patients, and results from clinical trials evaluating its long-term effectiveness in reducing morbidity and mortality are still a number of years off. Recently, a new therapy utilizing unilateral transvenous phrenic nerve stimulation has been introduced to treat CSA in HF. As a totally implantable, device-based therapy, it may be better tolerated than CPAP or ASV in HF patients and, thus, improve patient compliance with treatment. Early studies using this therapy have been encouraging, with patients demonstrating significant improvement in major indices of CSA severity.
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, 473 West 12th Avenue Suite 200, 43210, Columbus, OH, USA. Ralph.Augostini@osumc.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Augostini
mesh_terms: D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D010791:Phrenic Nerve; D020182:Sleep Apnea, Central / Q000150:complications* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome