ResMed explores sleep, heart failure connection

POWAY, Calif. - ResMed announced last week that it has launched a study--"the largest of its kind," the manufacturer says--to determine the effects of central sleep apnea treatment on heart failure patients. During the four-year study, called SERVE-HF, physicians will examine the long-term benefits and the cost-effectiveness of ResMed's AutoSet CS2, a device that monitors breathing and, through a process called adaptive servo-ventilation, helps patients maintain normal breath rates. "The SERVE-HF study is designed to give clinicians the important information they need to better manage the significant number of heart failure patients who experience sleep-disordered breathing," said Professor Helmut Teschler, medical director at the Department of Pneumology, Ruhrland Clinic in Essen, Germany. "The contribution of the AutoSet CS 2 device in the management of such disorders will also become much clearer." Up to 76% of patients with heart failure also suffer from sleep-disordered breathing, according to ResMed's release. About two-thirds of those patients have central sleep apnea. As part of the study, researchers plan to recruit 1,260 heart failure patients at 80 clinics across the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Sleep-disordered breathing affects about 5% of women and 10% of men, according to the release. However, up to 95% of those suffering from sleep apnea have not been diagnosed and treated for their condition.