Same Heart and Different Sleep? A Brief Review of the Association between Sleep Apnea Syndrome and Heart Failure Based on Two Clinical Cases
Journal Title: Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research - Year 2014, Vol 4, Issue 1
Abstract
The research in the field of sleep medicine has increased during the whole twentieth century, principally for the involvement of sleep-related disordered breathing (SDB) in cardiovascular disease. If sleep encompasses about a third of one’s life, the reasons are mostly linked to its effects on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Sleep is a physiological phenomenon characterized by changes in the human body leading to a state of quiescence of the cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic systems [1]. The importance of these events becomes more evident if we consider what happens in their absence, that is, during SDB syndromes. These syndromes include habitual snoring, sleep apnea, Cheyne-Stokes breathing syndrome and sleep hypoventilation syndrome [2]. Sleep apnea syndromes are characterized by several apneic events during the night, which consist in absence of the airflow or its reduction by more than 90% lasting more than 10 seconds, with consequent oxyhemoglobin desaturation and arousal [2]. These events provoke microawakening and sleep fragmentation that represent, along with hypoxemia, important harmful triggers on the cardiovascular system. In fact, SDB presents as a highly prevalent comorbidity in patients with heart failure (HF); both diseases are related to each other in a bidirectional way through multiple mechanisms: apneic events raise cardiac afterload, and at the same time impaired cardiac function itself may contribute to the development of sleep apnea. HF is a clinical syndrome characterized by signs or symptoms due to the inability of the heart to provide a normal tissue perfusion: the failing cardiac pump is not able to maintain an adequate output for this task. Typical features of HF are represented by shortness of breath, resting or exertion dyspnea, fatigue, fluid retention leading to pulmonary congestion or ankle swelling, and objective evidence of a structurally or functionally abnormal heart at rest [1,3].
Authors and Affiliations
Nicola Vitulano, Francesco Perna, Graziano x Graziano Riccioni, Maria Teresa Cardillo, Valentina Coluccia, Ada Francesca Giglio, Massimo Gustapane, Fulvio Bellocci
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP348457
- DOI 10.9734/BJMMR/2014/4688
- Views 55
- Downloads 0
Clinico-Demographic Analysis and Outcome of Childhood Thrombosis in a Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Unit: A single Center Experience
Aim of the study: Thrombosis is rare in childhood with limited studies. Our retrospective study was designed to evaluate children with documented thrombotic events registered in our pediatric hematology -oncology unit ov...
Development of a Theoretical Model for the Appreciation of the Perception of Quality of Work Life and Occupational Stress, and Its Validation through Statistical Analyses
The present study describes the development of a theoretical model and a questionnaire measuring the perception of Quality of Worklife (QWL) and Occupational Stress (OS), as well as their validation through statistical a...
A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the MGMT Gene is a Novel Prognostic Biomarker in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Background: Discovery of novel biomarkers of prognosis and drug response remains an elusive, yet critical goal. Thus, accurate and rapid screening of an array of pertinent mutations/SNPs is an essential step in cancer ma...
Differences in Haematological and Biochemical Parameters of Athletes and Non-Athletes
Aims: Researches show that sports participation has its own inherent haematological and biochemical adaptations. Although studies have reported that athletes are at vantage level as compare to non-athletes in physiologic...
Mucocele of the Sphenoid, Ethmoid and Frontal Sinuses Presenting with Proptosis, Visual Impairment and Diplopia
Mucocele of the paranasal sinus is accumulation of the mucoid secretion within the sinus caused by obstruction of the sinus ostium. We report a case of paranasal sinus mucocele presented with proptosis in right eye, dipl...