Atrial Fibrillation (a fib) and sleep apnea

A-FIB AND RISKS OF UNTREATED SLEEP APNEA
It is now established that there’s a correlation between Sleep Apnea and A-Fib.

At least 43% of patients with Atrial Fibrillation suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) as well.

Sleep Apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep. Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They may occur 30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.

If you have untreated Sleep Apnea, you are a greater risk of having a more severe form of A-Fib or of not benefiting from an A-Fib treatment

For example, after a successful catheter ablation, patients with untreated sleep apnea have a greater chance for recurrence of their A-Fib.

HOW SLEEP APNEA IS DIAGNOSED
in the standard lab test for sleep apnea, you go to a hospital-like room, put on cumbersome sensors, then try to go to sleep in this unfamiliar environment.

It requires extensive monitoring to measure airflow, chest/abdominal movements, electromyography, electrocardiography, and oxygen saturation levels. The formal name for this test is polysomnography (PSG).

AT HOME SLEEP TESTS (HST)
A home sleep test (HST), also called ‘Unattended Sleep Study’, is a sleep study tool that is used for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea. Most HST devices are portable —about the size of a telephone handset. A home sleep test is more affordable.

At Amelia Respiratory and Sleep Medicine we offer home sleep test.

The WatchPAT is an FDA-approved wrist-worn sleep study device you can use in the comfort of your own bedroom to determine if you have sleep apnea. (PAT is short for Peripheral Arterial Tonometry [pressure measurement].)

It assesses respiratory disturbances and indirectly detects sleep apnea by measuring volume changes in the peripheral arteries along with pulse oximetry (oxygen desaturation) and respiratory arousals. (When you have sleep apnea, your breathing often stops till you have to gasp for breath. This is called “respiratory arousal.”)