Nocturnal myocardial ischemic events and sleep-disordered breathing in patients with coronary artery disease

Wenli ZHANG; Shiwen WANG; Caiyi LU; Peng LIU; Rui CHEN; Xian JI; Yusheng ZHAO

摘要：Objective To investigate the occurrence of nocturnal myocardial ischemia and its relationship with sleep-disordered breathing (apneas and oxygen desaturations) in patients with angina pectoris undergoing coronary angiography.Methods Eighty-two men and 14 women referred for consideration of coronary intervention were randomly selected. Observation by an overnight sleep monitor and Holter recording were performed to study sleep-disordered breathing (oxyhemoglobin desaturations≥4％ and apnea-hypopneas),heart rates, and ST-segment depressions (≥ 1mm, ≥1 min).Results Nocturnal ST-segment depressions occurred in 37 ％ of the patients. ST-segment depression within 2 min after an apnea-hypopnea or desaturation occurred in 17％ of the patients. This temporal association was seen in 21％ of the patients with nocturnal ST-segment depressions, more frequently in men (P＜0.05) and more frequently in those with severe disordered breathing (P＜0.05).Most of these ST-segment depressions were preceded by a series of breathing events: repeated apnea-hypopneas or desaturations or both in 73％ of the patients. Conclusions Episodes of nocturnal myocardial ischemia are common in patients with angina pectoris. A temporal relationship between sleep-disordered breathing and myocardial ischemia was present in some of our patients, and occurs more frequently in men and in those with severely disordered breathing. (J Geriatr Cardiol 2004;1(2):90-94.)