Jornal Internacional de Pesquisa Cardiovascular

Should every Patient with Heart Failure be Investigated for Sleep Apnea Syndrome?

Nicola Vitulano, Francesco Perna, Gianluigi Bencardino, Pio Cialdella, Maria Lucia Narducci, Daniela Pedicino, Gemma Pelargonio and Fulvio Bellocci

 Should every Patient with Heart Failure be Investigated for Sleep Apnea Syndrome?

The increasing interest in the field of sleep medicine during the whole twentieth century is principally due to the involvement of sleep-related disordered breathing (SDB) in cardiovascular disease. Disorders of a physiological phenomenon such as sleep lead to important changes in state of quiescence of the cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic systems during the night. Consequences of SDB (microawakening, sleep fragmentation, hypoxemia) represent important harmful triggers on the cardiovascular system, above all in patients suffering by inability of the heart to provide an adequate output such as for heart failure (HF) patients. SDB and HF may be related to each other in a bidirectional way from epidemiologic and physiopathologic point of view.