Chronic heart failure is a clinical syndrome with a high mortality and morbidity. Despite optimal therapy, five-year survival is still only 50%.
1 In addition, chronic heart failure is accompanied by a serious reduction of quality of life. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) affects 2 to 5% of the general population. Its prevalence in chronic heart failure is, however, much higher. When an Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index (AHI) of >15/min was used for the diagnosis of SDB, a consistent prevalence between 49 and 55% was found in various groups of heart failure patients. …