%0 Journal Article %J Am J Respir Crit Care Med %D 2006 %T Association of nocturnal arrhythmias with sleep-disordered breathing: The Sleep Heart Health Study. %A Mehra, Reena %A Benjamin, Emelia J %A Shahar, Eyal %A Gottlieb, Daniel J %A Nawabit, Rawan %A Kirchner, H Lester %A Sahadevan, Jayakumar %A Redline, Susan %K Aged %K Aged, 80 and over %K Arrhythmias, Cardiac %K Circadian Rhythm %K Electrocardiography %K Female %K Follow-Up Studies %K Humans %K Male %K Middle Aged %K Odds Ratio %K Polysomnography %K Prevalence %K Retrospective Studies %K Risk Factors %K Severity of Illness Index %K Sleep %K Sleep Apnea, Obstructive %X

RATIONALE: Sleep-disordered breathing recurrent intermittent hypoxia and sympathetic nervous system activity surges provide the milieu for cardiac arrhythmia development.

OBJECTIVE: We postulate that the prevalence of nocturnal cardiac arrhythmias is higher among subjects with than without sleep-disordered breathing.

METHODS: The prevalence of arrhythmias was compared in two samples of participants from the Sleep Heart Health Study frequency-matched on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and body mass index: (1) 228 subjects with sleep-disordered breathing (respiratory disturbance index>or=30) and (2) 338 subjects without sleep-disordered breathing (respiratory disturbance index<5).

RESULTS: Atrial fibrillation, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, and complex ventricular ectopy (nonsustained ventricular tachycardia or bigeminy or trigeminy or quadrigeminy) were more common in subjects with sleep-disordered breathing compared with those without sleep-disordered breathing: 4.8 versus 0.9% (p=0.003) for atrial fibrillation; 5.3 versus 1.2% (p=0.004) for nonsustained ventricular tachycardia; 25.0 versus 14.5% (p=0.002) for complex ventricular ectopy. Compared with those without sleep-disordered breathing and adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and prevalent coronary heart disease, individuals with sleep-disordered breathing had four times the odds of atrial fibrillation (odds ratio [OR], 4.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-15.74), three times the odds of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (OR, 3.40; 95% CI, 1.03-11.20), and almost twice the odds of complex ventricular ectopy (OR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.11-2.74). A significant relation was also observed between sleep-disordered breathing and ventricular ectopic beats/h (p<0.0003) considered as a continuous outcome.

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with severe sleep-disordered breathing have two- to fourfold higher odds of complex arrhythmias than those without sleep-disordered breathing even after adjustment for potential confounders.

%B Am J Respir Crit Care Med %V 173 %P 910-6 %8 2006 Apr 15 %G eng %N 8 %1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16424443?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1164/rccm.200509-1442OC