Effect of Heart Valve Replacement on Cheyne-Stokes Respiration in Patients With Rheumatic Heart Disease

Sleep apnea, especially central sleep apnea, has a high prevalence in patients with chronic heart failure. Although sleep disordered breathing (SDB) have been described in patients with heart disease, the prevalence is not known because: ①There are various forms of SDBs, including obstructive sleep apnea(OSA), central sleep apnea (CSA), and mixed forms of sleep apnea syndromes that have variable prevalence; ②Patients suffering from rheumatic valve disease usually have varying degrees of heart failure, and this variability affects estimates of prevalence; ③There are no international patient registries and SDB is underdiagnosed in many parts of the world.

The previous studies are most focusing on nonvalvular disease. We ①investigate the prevalence and the risk factors of Cheyne-Stokes respiration in patients with heart valve diseases, ②compare the changes of parameters of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration and heart function (like apnea hypopnea index, pulse oxygen saturation, blood pressure, echocardiogram, electrocardiogram, 6-minute walk test) before heart valve replacement and 3, 6, and 12 months after the surgery.

With nocturnal polysomnography (PSG) examination 30 patients typical CSR are going to be screened out from 300 patients with heart valve disease and waiting for cardiac surgery. The Comparison of 30 patients undergoing heart valve replacement will be performed before and 3, 6, and 12 months following heart valve replacement. We shall analyze the changes of CSR before and after valve replacement as well as the correlation among cardiac function and PSG parameters.