CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF RESPIRATORY ACTIVITY AND BLOOD-PRESSURE

Sleep related breathing disorders occur frequently than expected in the past. Sleep apnea (SA) alone has a prevalence of 10% in the adult male population. Epidemiological and clinical studies indicate that SA and arterial hypertension are often associated. For the investigation of this interdependence, which is widely not understood, we have developed a portable long-term monitoring device, which can be applied to outpatients or can be integrated in a sleep laboratory. The device stores the nocturnal breathing pattern and invasive blood pressure (BP) via a catheter in the brachial artery. Due to extensive detection and evaluation procedures the unit can be used for scientific research primarily. With recent studies we have shown, that SA decreases the physiological BP fall during the night. We have provided further evidence, that anti-hypertensive therapy with beta-blockers and ACE-inhibitors have a different effect, especially on noctural BP vehaviour. As opposed to other measuring methods, this new system allows very accurate and long-term measurement of breathing pattern and BP behaviour, Last but not least, it does not disturb sleep.