[Nocturnal cardiac dysrhythmias associated with obstructive sleep apnea]

The occurrence of cardiac dysrhythmias have been analysed in 16 adult patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome of various severity randomly selected from more than 300 persons examined in our sleep laboratory from 1996 with a complex polysomnography Alice 3 (Healthdyne). The number of apneic episodes emerging in the first, second and third part of sleep was practically the same although their duration prolonged during the night culminating with an average of 25 sec (p < 0.02). OSA episodes caused a decrease of oxyhaemoglobin saturation to lower values during REM compared to NREM sleep (76.1% versus 81.7%, p < 0.05). Cardiac dysrhythmias occurred more frequently during and immediately after, than before OSA episodes demonstrating their causal relations.