Journal of sleep research
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Journal of sleep research · Apr 2020
Usefulness of cardiac parasympathetic index in CPAP-treated patients with obstructive sleep apnea: A preliminary study.
Cardiac autonomic indexes, including cardiac parasympathetic index and cardiac sympathetic index, have been reported to accurately identify patients with sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea. Our study aimed to assess cardiac autonomic indexes in patients with obstructive sleep apnea before and during a single full-night continuous positive airway pressure therapy using a combined approach. Our simultaneous heart rate variability-polysomnographic study included 16 never-treated obstructive sleep apnea patients. ⋯ This study improves the knowledge on cardiac autonomic modulation during acute continuous positive airway pressure therapy in obstructive sleep apnea. Our results demonstrate that both autonomic indexes decreased significantly after a single-night of acute continuous positive airway pressure therapy. Cardiac parasympathetic index more than cardiac sympathetic index was related to decrease of apnea-hypopnea index after continuous positive airway pressure therapy, thus representing a potential help in everyday clinical practice.