Central Apnea in Heart Failure: Physiological Mechanisms to Inform Treatment

Central sleep apnea (CSA) is common in patients with heart failure and those using opioid analgesics. Unfortunately, effective treatment of central apnea remains elusive, pressure therapy given the modest efficiency of positive airway pressure therapy. The focus of this proposal is to identify mechanistic pathways to guide future therapeutic interventions for central sleep apnea based on the strong premise that multi-modality therapy will normalize respiration and hence mitigate adverse long-term consequences of CSA. The investigators' proposed studies will test combination therapies, including positive airway pressure (PAP) plus a pharmacological agent who have heart failure or are using opioid analgesics. The investigators anticipate that findings will inform future clinical trials to improve care and quality of life among Veterans suffering from central sleep apnea, which remains difficult to treat using existing approaches.

NCT Number	NCT07210606
Lead Sponsor	VA Office of Research and Development
Conditions	Sleep Disordered Breathing, Able Bodied
Enrollment	200 participants
Start Date	2026-10-01
Primary Completion	2030-06-30 (estimated)
Study Completion	2030-12-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-01-07