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Clinical InvestigationsBreathing Pattern Abnormalities and Arterial Oxygen Desaturation during Sleep in the Congestive Heart Failure Syndrome: Improvement following Medical Therapy
Section snippets
Patient Population
Seven hospitalized patients admitted for treatment of decompensated left ventricular heart failure were studied. All underwent an overnight sleep study both on hospital admission and following medical therapy for decompensated congestive heart failure syndrome (CHFS). The syndrome was defined when classic history, physical and roentgenographic findings of left ventricular congestive heart failure were present. Selection criteria for inclusion were primary left ventricular failure in the absence
RESULTS
Six patients were studied in a decompensated state, then restudied after vigorous medical therapy for their CHFS. Five men and one woman with decompensated CHFS underwent overnight sleep study within 48 hours of hospital admission (Table 1). All patients’ conditions were diagnosed as ischemic, hypertensive, or idiopathic cardiomyopathic heart disease. The mean age was 60 ±13 years. The mean male weight was 76 ±16 kg; the female weighed 65 kg. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 28 ±11
DISCUSSION
Clinicians have long recognized that breathing during sleep can be abnormal in congestive heart failure. Although recent studies have documented breathing pattern abnormalities during sleep in patients with congestive heart failure,7, 8 our data are the first to document improvement in breathing pattern abnormalities following therapy for heart failure.
Our data support the concept that the sleep abnormalities found in our stable compensated patients are related to their heart failure. First,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank Dr. Roger Dreiling for allowing us to interview his patients, Dr. William Ruth for reviewing the manuscript, and Judy Nealy and Phyllis Swafford for secretarial assistance.
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Manuscript received July 17; revision accepted November 19.