Pacing and sleep apnea
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Atrial overdrive pacing significantly reduced the number of episodes of sleep apnea (central or obstructive) without reducing total sleep time in 15 patients over 60 that had been implanted with pacemakers at least one year earlier for symptomatic sinus bradycardia, French researchers report in the Feb. 7 New England Journal of Medicine. The results are "tantalizing because they imply that novel non-mechanical treatment options may be found for sleep apnea and because they suggest that the heart may be important in controlling respiration," Daniel Gottlieb, MD/MPH, Boston University, comments in an accompanying editorial. "Identification of the specific neural pathways involved may advance efforts to develop much-needed pharmacologic therapies"...