Effects of physiological cardiac pacing on sleep‐disordered breathing in patients with chronic bradydysrhythmias

Abstract

Abstract In six patients with chronic bradydysrhythmias, polysomnographies were performed before cardiac pacemaker implantation and over the week following implantation. A patient with third‐degree atrioventricular block (AVB) and two patients with sinus node dysfunction (SND) were associated with sleep‐disordered breathing (SDB). Their cardiac pacemaker therapies, with the increase in the average heart rate, led to a reduction of apnea–hypopnea index and/or an improvement of Cheyne‐Stokes breathing. It seems that chronic bradydysrhythmia is one of the causative factors leading to SDB.