A nightly breathing treatment may do more than help people with obstructive sleep apnea get a good night’s rest — it may also help prevent heart failure.

In a study published in Circulation: Heart Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association, researchers in the U.K. discovered that moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can cause changes in the heart’s shape and function, similar to the effects of hypertension. These changes include increased mass, thickening of the heart wall and reduced pumping ability.

But, six months after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, the abnormalities returned to near-normal measurements in sleep apnea patients. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep affects a person’s waking hours more than a person realizes. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, about 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, restless limb syndrome, narcolepsy, delayed or advanced sleep phase syndrome and parasomnias. 

The Alert, Well and Keeping Energy (AWAKE) sleep support group is part of the Piedmont Newnan Sleep Center’s efforts to help patients get the rest they need to lead normal, productive lives.

“People don’t realize the affect and power a good night’s sleep has on people,” says Jennifer Morrow, the Piedmont Newnan Hospital Sleep Center and AWAKE support group coordinator.

Some common symptoms of not getting enough rest include excessive sleepiness during daytime hours, loud snoring, pauses during breathing while asleep, morning headaches, restless legs during sleep and exhaustion despite having enough sleep hours. Read the rest of this entry

The Aviisha Medical Institute, LLC is making headway in the battle against sleep apnea as physician groups continue to join its MD Home Sleep Program at a record pace. The program equips physicians with the knowledge and tools to diagnose and treat sleep apnea without resorting to costly lab testing.

The surge in group signups has helped Aviisha, the national leader in home sleep testing, reach more sleep apnea patients than ever before. “We’re seeing a remarkable number of patients getting treated thanks to the collective effort of our physicians,” said Dr. Avi Ishaaya, the cofounder and Medical Director of Aviisha. “Only 10-20% of sufferers are diagnosed despite the fact that untreated sleep apnea has such devastating health consequences.” Sleep apnea has been linked to increased risk of stroke, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, obesity, sexual dysfunctional, depression, loss of motivation, and chronic fatigue.”

The groups come from a variety of states and comprise numerous specialties.

Aviisha’s MD Home Sleep Program Read the rest of this entry

Men with erectile dysfunction (ED) should be tested for the presence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to researchers here at the American Urological Association (AUA) 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting.

The findings are from a study that examined the link between ED and OSA in 870 middle-aged men who were consecutively enrolled in the ongoing Law Enforcement Cardiac Screening Program, which is part of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program.

“The study is the largest to date to demonstrate an independent association between ED and OSA after controlling for known cardiovascular risk factors,” principal investigator Boback Berookhim, MD, MBA, urology resident at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, said. Read the rest of this entry

Waikato District Health Board, An international sleep research study that requires at least 350 New Zealand volunteers, some at Waikato Hospital and some at Hutt Hospital, may lead to a new medical approach for the treatment of sleep apnea.

The study, known as Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints Study (SAVE), is attempting to discover if the use of continuous positive airway pressure can reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure in patients with sleep apnea.

Michael Hlavac, New Zealand SAVE Coordinator said, “Continuous Positive Airway Pressure is a common treatment for sleep apnea but we don’t know if it can reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure which is associated with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).

“Some research has shown that there may be a relationship between untreated sleep apnea and heart disease, stroke and impaired glucose metabolism (pre-diabetes).”

There are five sites in New Zealand looking for volunteers:

1. North Island: Waikato Hospital, Tauranga Hospital and Hutt Hospital.
2. South Island: Otago Respiratory Research Unit and Canterbury Respiratory Research Group.

5000 people from China, Australia, Brazil and India will be involved in study. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep apnea is one of the worst kinds of disease that affects many people in US. If you have a sleep apnea this does not mean that you are denied from getting a proper health insurance. As per the surveys conducted in U.S alone approximately 20 million people have this disease this number is aggressively increases on a daily basis all over the world. The main symptoms of this disease include high blood pressure, insomnia, morning headaches etc.

This is not a simple health condition that you can avoid and live at ease. If you are not giving much of attention to this disease it will slowly get worst over time. So it is required that you get proper medication on time and you must get the right sleep apnea insurance to cure this disease. Read the rest of this entry

As the feds and payors focus on curbing readmission rates, hospitals and caregivers need to revisit management of the hospital-to-home transition. Philips Healthcare shared a new multi-vendor, multi-disciplinary model during the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

Philips pointed out that although incentives are not aligned to reduce readmissions currently, the paradigm will reverse on Oct. 1, 2012, when Medicare will no longer reimburse for heart failure and acute MI patients who are readmitted within 30 days of their initial hospital stay.

The Hospital to Home (H2H) Learning Destination at ACC.11 walked visitors through three patient scenarios and illustrated how technology could improve patient management and outcomes.

The H2H Learning Destination focused on three patients: Jose, an acute MI patient treated with a stent and subsequently diagnosed with sleep apnea; Brian, a stage III heart failure patient with diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea; and Maria, an 82-year old suffering worsening atrial fibrillation despite a transcatheter aortic valve replacement and antiarrhythmic medications.

Jose’s hospital stay entailed standard clinical systems such as echocardiography and 16-lead cardiograph, with patient data stored in the cardiology information system. Other components were cableless monitoring of NBP S_pO₂, sleep diagnostics, a hospital registry for MI patients and discharge planning including risk stratification. Read the rest of this entry

The Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine, a group that aims to promote the cross-fertilization between anesthesiology and sleep medicine, encourage studies determining the associations between sleep-disordered breathing and examine methods of minimizing perioperative risk, among other goals.

According to the report on sleep medicine and anesthesia, published in Anesthesiology, sleep apnea is associated with substantial morbidity and increased risk of postoperative complications. Studies have shown an association between obstructive sleep apnea and the development of hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, stroke and metabolic syndrome.

Sleep medicine and anesthesiology both deal with significant changes in autonomic control associated with the loss of waking consciousness, the report outlines. The SASM urges all anesthesiologists to embrace the role of a perioperative sleep physician.

SASM is organizing another pre-convention conference on Oct. 14, 2011 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting in Chicago. Anyone who wishes to join the Society or attend the annual meeting is invited to contact its secretary, Norman Bolden, MD, at nbolden@metrohealth.org

Ohio State University’s Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital implants a type of pacemaker in the first U.S. patient to receive the device to study it for the treatment of central sleep apnea in heart failure patients.

Central sleep apnea is a dangerous form of the disorder that can cause patients to hyperventilate during the night, and the implant should deliver small electrical impulses during sleep to restore more natural breathing.

“There are 6 million people with heart failure in the United States today. Eighty percent of them have sleep apnea and about half of those have central sleep apnea,” says Dr. William Abraham, director of the division of cardiovascular medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center, and principal investigator of the safety and feasibility trial. “Literally millions of patients may be eligible for treatment with this device.” Read the rest of this entry

A recently completed research evaluated insomnia symptoms and the extent to which they are associated with clinical and demographic patient characteristics, daytime symptoms, and functional performance in patients with stable heart failure (HF). 

In a cross-sectional, observational research study with a setting  as a five structured HF disease management programs in the Northeastern U.S.

This research study involved 173 stable chronic HF patients as participants.Full polysomnography was obtained for one night in participants’ homes. Read the rest of this entry

Clinic-based observational studies in men have reported that obstructive sleep apnea is associated with an increased incidence of coronary heart disease. The objective of this study was to assess the relation of obstructive sleep apnea to incident coronary heart disease and heart failure in a general community sample of adult men and women.

A total of 1927 men and 2495 women 40 years of age and free of coronary heart disease and heart failure at the time of baseline polysomnography were followed up for a median of 8.7 years in this prospective longitudinal epidemiological study. Read the rest of this entry

Cardiac Concepts, Inc., a developer of medical devices to treat Heart Failure patients who experience breathing disturbances during sleep, announced today enrollment of the first European patients in a Pilot Clinical Trial.

The purpose of the Pilot Study is to understand the respiratory and cardiac benefits of the RespiCardia(TM) System when treating a breathing disorder known as Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) in Heart Failure patients. Prof. Piotr Ponikowski, Principal Investigator of the Pilot Clinical Trial at The Medical University/4th Military Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland, commented that the system was successfully implanted in 2 male patients, ages 57 and 68 years with ischemic cardiomyopathy and symptoms of moderate heart failure. Despite optimal medical management, both experienced severe sleep breathing disorders. The trial is a 40 patient study being conducted in a number of centers worldwide. Implants are expected to begin in the United States in the coming months. Read the rest of this entry