Chest
Clinical Investigations: Sleep and BreathingReversal of Central Sleep Apnea With Oxygen
Section snippets
Patients
Twenty consecutive patients with predominantly central apneas were studied. They were identified from 570 patients referred for a respiratory sleep recording because of suspected sleep apnea syndrome. All but one were men and they all had more than 10 central apneas per hour of sleep. No drug therapy was withdrawn before or during the sleep study. The median age was 68.5 years (range, 38 to 80 years) and the median body mass index was 27.0 kg/m2 (range, 19.7 to 46.7 kg/m2). All the patients
Apnea and Sleep
Central apnea occurred during Cheyne-Stokes respiration in 18 of 20 patients (Table 2). None had central apnea only at sleep onset. The median central apnea-hypopnea index was 33.5 (range, 8.0 to 52.0) during the first night without oxygen. The median obstructive apnea-hypopnea index was 3.6 (range, 0.3 to 29.4) and the median mixed apnea-hypopnea index was 0.0 (range, 0.0 to 5.8). The central apnea-hypopnea index was reduced to 5.0 (range, 0.0 to 31.0) (p<0.01) during oxygen therapy (Fig 1).
DISCUSSION
There are few studies on the treatment for central apnea and Cheyne-Stokes respiration, despite the fact that the disorder has been well known since the 19th century.9, 10 The main findings in the present study were that the number of central apneas was reduced by oxygen in all patients and that the reduction was marked in most of them. Most patients had congestive heart failure and central apnea during Cheyne-Stokes respiration. However, oxygen was also effective in those patients without
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was conducted in the sleep laboratory in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine. Eva Svanborg, MD, PhD is acknowledged for her valuable comments and Bengt Lundkvist for statistical advice.
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Cited by (0)
This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation and the Swedish Association for Heart and Lung Patients.