6 | MUSChealth.org/heart MUSC HEALTH HEART & VASCULAR CENTER Dr. Gregory Jackson’s interest in the intersection between heart failure and sleep apnea contributed to his expertise in the diagnosis and advanced therapies for both. “Pure numbers caught my attention initially,” said Dr. Jackson. “As many as 75% to 80% of the patients we treated for heart failure had sleep apnea and other co-morbidities like obesity and high blood pressure. That sparked our intrigue, so we started to do home sleep tests while patients were under our care.” Sleep apnea, the cessation of breathing for 10 seconds or longer, temporarily reduces the supply of oxygen to a person’s heart and lungs. The two main types of sleep apnea are obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central sleep apnea (CSA). OSA, the most common type, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and collapse, which blocks a person’s upper airway, Dr. Jackson explained. CSA occurs when a person’s brain does not send out signals to maintain normal breathing, or the body does not correctly receive those signals. Do you fall asleep while watching TV? Do you wake up not feeling refreshed? Do you wake up to go to the bathroom at night? By asking patients traditional questions like these, Dr. Jackson and his team determined who needed to be set up with a sleep study. “We found that when we studied heart failure patients pre- and post-therapy, within the LVAD population, numerous patients had central sleep apnea,” Dr. Jackson explained. “We started seeing a decrease in re-admissions and in mortality rates once we were able to diagnose the condition, get patients on therapy and help them understand the other co-morbidities,” Dr. Jackson added. Dr. Jackson hopes that testing for sleep apnea, especially for patients with cardiovascular disease, will become more common. He is researching and championing new technology for remote monitoring for sleep apnea – technology that improves the testing experience for many patients. Dr. Jackson’s other clinical interests include left ventricular assist devices, cardiac transplantation, echocardiography and cardiac catheterization, and his research interests include the intersection of sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease. He graduated from the University of Florida with highest honors before receiving his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He completed internal medicine residency training at the Cleveland Clinic and his cardiology fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he served as chief fellow. Dr. Jackson went on to complete the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation Fellowship at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill before returning to MUSC as an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology. SLEEP APNEA FAST FACTS ABOUT SLEEP APNEA It’s estimated that patients with sleep apnea are two to four times more likely to develop heart arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) than people without this condition. Sleep apnea increases the risk of heart failure by 140% and the risk of coronary heart disease by 30%. Source: sleepfoundation.org Intriguing Correlation with Heart Failure Dr. Greg Jackson Dr. Greg Jackson right, Kathy Law center and Julie Ehret left
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