Treatment of Sleep Disordered Breathing In Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Patients

Heart Failure affects 5-6 million Americans and there are about 550 thousand new cases of heart failure every year. There are approximately 3 million hospital admission for acute decompensated heart failure with hospital readmission rate of 20% at 30 days and 50% at 60 day, costing up to 20 billion dollars per year. In our previous study we have discovered that sleep disordered breathing is prevalent in 70% of patients with acute decompensated heart failure. We hypothesize that, detection and treatment of sleep disordered breathing in acute decompensated heart failure patients will reduce episodic hypoxic events during acute decompensation and may decrease hospital length of stay and reduce future readmissions.