In a substudy of CAT-HF, patients with heart failure, sleep-disordered breathing, and an implantable cardiac device assigned adaptive servo-ventilation plus optimal medical therapy had a reduction in atrial fibrillation/atrial tachycardia burden compared with those assigned optimal medical therapy alone, reports Healio.

“It is extremely well appreciated that sleep apnea increases the incidence of cardiac arrhythmias, including [atrial fibrillation], atrial ectopy, ventricular ectopies, ventricular arrhythmias of appropriate ICE shocks and sudden cardiac death,” Jonathan P. Piccini, MD, MHSc, associate professor of medicine and member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, said during a presentation.