Reference:
Y Ma, S Sun A new approach to sleep study: does heart tell us a lot? Sleep Med 2013; e188-e189. DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2013.11.446
Objectives:
Summarize publications focused on utilizing CardioPulmonary Coupling in sleep disorder management.
Conclusions:
ECG-derived respiration signal is highly correlated with the actual respiration waveforms. Cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) analysis is derived from an estimation of the coupling between the autonomic and respiratory drives, using heart rate and respiratory modulation of QRS amplitude, respectively. This dual information can be extracted from a single channel of ECG. High frequency coupling (HFC) is the marker of stable sleep, and low-frequency coupling (LFC) is the marker of unstable sleep. Fragmented sleep is characterized by coupled low-frequency behaviors across numerous sleep-based physiological streams. There have been an increasing number of papers evaluating CPC or using CPC as a clinical measurement.
Practical Significance:
Data derived from a single-lead ECG can be used both as clinical screen or post-treatment follow-up. This review confirmed the association between sleep physiology and sleep spectrums analyzed by cardiopulmonary coupling. As sleep problems are of growing concern, easier access of overnight ECG data can be used broadly when sleep monitoring is necessary. With the techniques of cardiopulmonary analysis, a portable monitor for sleep can be effective by collecting enough data for sleep analysis, meanwhile being more convenient and cost-effective.
