Therapeutic Research

Abstract

The cardiac pacemaker sold by Sorin CRM （Reply200, KORA100, KORA250） has a thoracic impedance monitoring function （SAM） reflecting breathing. The amplitude of the minute ventilation signal based on the thoracic impedance reflects respiration, detects the amplitude pause or decrease, and is recorded as the respiratory disturbance index （RDI）. The relationship between RDI of SAM and RDI of simplified poly for the 10 patients who were implanted with these devices and were also able to wear simple polysomnography （simple poly） and had the result of SAM were evaluated. In this evaluation, the judgment of severe SAS （RDI ≧30） was consistent among all patients, and the RDI of SAM and the RDI of simplified poly had a high correlation. Analysis of the detailed apnea events for the difference between two RDIs and their causes for each patient showed that the more patients with central apnea predominate, the less the RDI error, the lower the respiratory/obstructive apnea dominance resulting in a large error. SAM is useful information for the diagnosis of severe SAS and it was considered that SAS can be detected early by continuous monitoring. There are many reports on the association between SAS and arrhythmia, and SAS is said to increase the risk of developing atrial fibrillation. It was suggested that device follow –up including prevention of new arrhythmia episodes is possible by effectively utilizing the functions of the device.