An overlooked form of SDB
Professor Martin Cowie
Another form of sleep apnoea – central sleep apnoea with Cheyne Stokes respiration (CSA-CSR) – has received less in-depth investigation than OSA. Nonetheless, it carries significant importance, particularly in heart failure patients. Moderate-to-severe forms have been reported to occur in up to 50% of chronic heart failure patients.4-7 Unlike OSA patients, whose loud night-time snores are punctuated with dramatic apnoeic episodes, CSA-CSR patients exhibit a different style of breathing. In this patient group, night-time breathing follows a waxing and waning pattern in which successive breat
