Bendopnea as a predictor of chronic heart failure decompensation

Aim

To study of the risk of developing chronic heart failure (CHF) decompensation in patients with a preserved left ventricular ejection fraction and bendopnea.

Results

Bendopnea was detected in 75.5% of patients and developed within 22.5 ± 9.3 s after tilt. Bendopnea was accompanied by shortness of breath, orthopnea and nocturnal paroxysmal dyspnea in 95.0%, 80.0% and 27.5% of p atients, respectively. Other signs and symptoms of CHF w ere absent only in 3.8% of patients with bendopnea. Daily i ntake of more than 10 g of salt increased the risk of all the symptoms of CHF, excluding night paroxysmal dyspnea. The presence of bendopnea was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in the risk of CHF decompensation (p<0.05) if daily salt intake exceeded 10 g, while bendopnea that occurred within 15 to 20 s after tilt was associated with 7.1-fold increase in the risk of decompensation (p<0.05).

Conclusion

The highest risk of CHF decompensation was found in patients with bendopnea that occurred within 20 seconds after tilt or was associated with daily salt intake of more than 10 g, regardless of the time to bendopnea after tilt

Key words

Bendopnea, chronic heart failure, decompensation, shortness of breath, salt.