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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – COLUMBUS, Ohio – By the end of the year, a million more Americans will have spent time in the hospital for heart failure.* That number has tripled in the last 30 years* and it is the number one reason people are admitted*. Heart failure patients typically undergo a battery of tests to see how strong their heart is, but cardiac experts at Ohio State University Medical Center are taking their care of these patients one step further, testing each one to see how well they sleep – while they’re still in the hospital.
In the past, patients may have had to wait weeks or months to get tested and treated for sleep apnea, a dangerous condition that blocks airways during sleep, if they were treated at all. But by addressing the problem, which affects nearly 75 percent of heart failure patients, at the hospital, patients can rest easier at home knowing just how much this can help.
“We decided that these patients should actually get the benefit of diagnosis and treatment immediately while they’re in the hospital,” says Rami Khayat, MD of Ohio State University Medical Center.
During in-hospital sleep testing, experts at Ohio State monitor heart failure patients as they sleep to see if they need to be treated with a device called a CPAP machine. The machine blows air into a patient’s nose to keep airways open, helping patients breathe correctly and prevent snoring. Treating patients immediately with the CPAP machine can help considerably, leading to weight loss and decreased blood pressure.
In a recent study, Dr. Khayat and colleagues found that the CPAP machines boosted the efficiency of the heart in patients by as much as 15 percent.* Now, all patients admitted for heart problems are automatically tested for sleep problems, too.
“We found that the patients that were treated in the hospital experienced significant benefit in their cardiac function, just within a few days. At the time of discharge, their cardiac function was significantly better than the ones who were not treated in the hospital,” Dr. Khayat says.
Ohio State’s recent look into the correlation between sleep and heart health have provided hope for Chris Kazermzack of Dublin, Ohio. He’s a former professional wrestler whose career was cut short due to a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation. It made Chris’ heart beat erratically.
“It got to be so frustrating that what I wanted to do, I couldn’t do anymore. My atrial fib was stopping me from doing it any more, so I stopped doing the in-ring portion of wresting,” Kazermzack says.
For years Chris was treated with medicine to control his heartbeat but now he also uses the CPAP machine for treatment and the results are incredible.
“It’s great, it’s changed my life,” Chris says. “The sleep and the rest that you get far outweighs however cumbersome you might think the mask and the machine is. We all take sleep for granted – until we don’t get any of it.”
Sources: *Trends in Hospitalizations for Heart Failure by Age Group, 1979-2004, United States, Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, retrieved October 2009 from: http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/library/fs_heart_failure.htm
**In-Hospital Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea During Decompensation of Heart Failure, Chest, Official Publication of the American College of Chest Physicians, August 2009, retrieved from: http://www.chestjournal.org/content/early/2009/06/26/chest.09-0597
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