Cardiorespiratory screening for sleep-disordered breathing

Abstract

To the Editor: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with an increasing mortality 1, 2. The prevalence of SDB, in particular central sleep apnoea and Cheyne–Stokes respiration, is remarkably high in heart failure patients 3. Therefore, screening for SDB in heart failure patients is an emerging clinical problem. Waiting times for in-hospital polysomnography (PSG), which still represents the gold standard for SDB diagnosis, are increasing. Consequently, cardiorespiratory polygraphy (PG) devices for the diagnosis of SDB have been introduced. Two studies of PG devices have previously been published in the European Respiratory Journal . Dingli et al. 4 compared data of PSG with those obtained with a portable PG device (Embletta: Medcare, Reykjavik, Iceland) to detect obstructive sleep apnoea. Using simultaneous measurements they found a close agreement in …