title: Respiratory sleep disorders in patients with congestive heart failure.
abstract: Respiratory sleep disorders (RSD) occur in about 40-50% of patients with symptomatic congestive heart failure (CHF). Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is considered a cause of CHF, whereas central sleep apnea (CSA) is considered a response to heart failure, perhaps even compensatory. In the setting of heart failure, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) has a definite role in treating OSA with improvements in cardiac parameters expected. However in CSA, CPAP is an adjunctive therapy to other standard therapies directed towards the heart failure (pharmacological, device and surgical options). Whether adaptive servo controlled ventilatory support, a variant of CPAP, is beneficial is yet to be proven. Supplemental oxygen therapy should be used with caution in heart failure, in particular, by avoiding hyperoxia as indicated by SpO2 values >95%.
authors.affiliation: 1 General Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Department of Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, 2 Department of Medicine, Monash University, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Naughton
keywords: Sleep apnea; congestive heart failure (CHF)