Mechanisms of Action of Adaptive Servoventilation

As part of a wider study we are interested in how patients with a failing heart breathe during sleep. It is known that patients with heart failure and central sleep apnoea (a form of breathing difficulty during sleep) have a poorer prognosis. It is likely that this is because this condition places an extra strain on the heart. We want to investigate whether or not treating these breathing problems is of benefit to this group of patients. The proposed study will investigate why a significant proportion of patients with heart failure have central sleep apnoea and how they respond to treatment. We will do this by measuring some of the factors which contribute to how they breathe:

(i) How the brain changes the breathing rate and depth in response to a change in carbon dioxide levels (Chemosensitivity); (ii) How the blood vessels in the brain change in response to a change in carbon dioxide levels (Cerebral Vascular Reactivity); (iii) An overall measure of breathing control called "Loop Gain" (this protocol will only be undertaken in a subgroup of patients who will give specific consent).

These measurements will be carried out in the laboratory in patients taking part in SERVE-HF; a multicentre randomised controlled study of adaptive servoventilation (ASV). ASV is a form of non-invasive ventilation (delivered by a mask worn on the face) shown in previous smaller studies to adequately suppress sleep disordered breathing. The proposed study will allow us to take measurements from patients assigned to both the treatment and control groups; and compare measurements made in both groups at the start of treatment and at three months.

In addition measurements looking at activity levels will be made using an actiwatch device worn by patients for 14 consecutive days and nights. Previously it has been demonstrated that heart failure patients with sleep disordered breathing have lower levels of daytime activity when compared to heart failure patients without sleep disordered breathing. We will investigate the effect of ASV on activity measurements on this patients with sleep disordered breathing.

Healthy controls will be recruited to all parts of this protocol (ie measurements at baseline and 3 months) to allow comparison of data between patients and controls.