Early therapeutic effects of adaptive servo-ventilation on cardiac sympathetic nervous function in patients with heart failure evaluated using a combination of C-HED PET and I-MIBG SPECT.

Rationale: Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV), a novel respiratory support therapy for sleep disorders, may improve cardiac function in heart failure (HF). However, the reasons that ASV improves cardiac function have not been fully studied especially in sympathetic nervous function (SNF). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of ASV therapy on cardiac SNF in patients with HF.

Methods: We evaluated ASV therapeutic effects before and 6 months after ASV therapy in 9 HF patients [57.3 ± 17.3 years old, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 36.1 ± 16.7%]. We performed echocardiography, polysomnography, biomarkers, C-hydroxyephedrine (HED) PET as a presynaptic function marker and planar I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) to evaluate washout rate.

Results: ASV therapy reduced apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and improved plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentration. In I-MIBG imaging, the early heart/mediastinum (H/M) ratio increased after ASV therapy (2.19 ± 0.58 to 2.40 ± 0.67; P = 0.045). Washout rate did not change (23.8 ± 7.3% to 23.8 ± 8.8%; P = 0.122). Global C-HED retention index (RI) improved from 0.068 ± 0.033/s to 0.075 ± 0.034/s (P = 0.029).

Conclusions: ASV reduced AHI and improved BNP. ASV might initially improve presynaptic cardiac sympathetic nervous function in HF patients after 6 months of treatment.