Central Sleep Apnea: The problem of diagnosis

Central sleep-related breathing disturbances (SRBD) in heart failure patients are highly relevant in the practice of sleep medicine due to their prevalence and prognostic impact [1]. Repeated episodes of hypoxia and reoxygenation, as well as sympathetic activation associated with arousals from sleep promote the progression of heart failure [2]. As a consequence, both central and obstructive SRBD impair longterm survival of heart failure (HF) patients [3]. The results of the SERVE-HF trial are being intensively discussed intensively and have caused controversy [4, 5]; however, they only refer to patients with substantially reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) [4, 6].

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