Sleep therapy equipment maker ResMed will present data from two studies about sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in chronic heart failure at the 64th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology, from March 14-16.
The first key piece of data showed that nearly 7,000 patients in a German registry of more than 10,000 patients with stable chronic heart failure showed that sleep disordered breathing SDB), such as sleep apnea, was present in nearly one out of two people (46 percent). Prevalence of SDB increased rapidly with age. Other risk factors include male gender, more severe heart failure, atrial fibrillation and increased weight.
The German data will be presented in a poster session at the event by Olaf Oldenburg, Senior Cardiologist in the Department of Cardiology at the Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany on March 16 .
Data from an American study suggest that treatment of SDB may reduce hospital admission rates in patients with chronic heart failure. Patients compliant with positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy had significantly reduced hospital visits in the six months after starting therapy compared to the 6 months before therapy. A comparable group who were not compliant with PAP therapy had no change in frequency of hospital visits.
The American data will be presented in a poster session by Dr. Sunil Sharma, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University on March 14.
“The data we are presenting are important because they point toward a connection between breathing disorders in sleep, like sleep apnea, and chronic heart failure,” said ResMed Chief Medical Officer, Glenn Richards, M.D. “We look forward to learning the results of our landmark clinical study called SERVE-HF, that examines whether addressing sleep-disordered breathing in people with chronic heart failure improves survival.”
SERVE-HF is a large randomized controlled trial that will assess for the first time whether treatment of predominantly central sleep apnea, with ResMed’s Minute Ventilation-targeted Adaptive Servo-Ventilation (MV-ASV) therapy can reduce mortality and morbidity in patients with chronic heart failure who are receiving optimized medical therapy.