Cardiac Sympathetic Hyperactivity in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Cardiac Sympathetic Hyperactivity in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Obstructive Sleep Apnea. COPD. 2016 Jul 6;:1-6 Authors: Taranto-Montemurro L, Messineo L, Perger E, Salameh M, Pini L, Corda L, Ferliga M, Tantucci C Abstract Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) coexist in 0.5-1% of the general population. Both OSA and COPD are associated with increased sympathetic nervous activity, and patients affected by both disorders have higher risk for increased morbidity and mortality as compared with patients with COPD or OSA alone. We tested the hypothesis that patients with COPD and OSA (Overlap syndrome) have higher sympathetic and lower parasympathetic modulation of heart rate variability (HRV) in comparison with patients suffering from COPD or OSA alone. HRV indices in the frequency domain were evaluated from daytime electrocardiographic recordings in 14 patients with both severe OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 30) and mild-to-moderate COPD and compared with those with OSA (n = 24) or COPD (n = 16) alone. We found that, in the Overlap syndrome group, high-frequency (HF, 0.4-0.15 Hz) power was significantly lower (0.18 nu vs 0.34 nu in OSA and 0.44 nu in COPD patients, p < 0.01) and low-frequency (LF, 0.15-0.05 Hz) power was significantly greater (0.82 nu vs 0.66 nu in OSA and 0.57 nu in COPD patients, p < 0.01) compared with COPD and OSA groups. Patients wit...
Source: COPD: Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - Category: Respiratory Medicine Tags: COPD Source Type: research