Cardiac workload in patients with sleep-disordered breathing early after acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) may promote an increase in cardiac workload early after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We tested the hypothesis that in the early phase after AMI, SDB is associated with increased 24-h arterial BP, heart rate (HR), and, thus, cardiac workload.

Methods: In this prospective study, 55 consecutive patients with AMI and subsequent percutaneous coronary intervention (78% men; mean age, 54 ± 10 y; mean BMI, 28.

Natural course of sleep-disordered breathing after acute myocardial infarction.

The aim of this study was to test whether an improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) in the early phase after acute myocardial infarction is associated with a reduction of the severity of central and obstructive sleep apnoea. 40 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction underwent polysomnography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging within 5 days and 12 weeks after the event to assess sleep apnoea and cardiac function. We stratified the sample in patients who improved their left ventricular EF within 12 weeks by ≥ 5% (improved EF group, ΔEF 9 ± 1%, n=16) and in those who did not (unchanged EF group, ΔEF -1 ± 1%, n=24).