I am very interested to learn more about sleep apnea and heart failure. Would using a cpap help a heart failure patient?
Yes, if they have sleep apnea. They'd need a sleep study first.
Shoe on other foot, would someone with heart failure and sleep apnea be worse off by not using their cpap?
Yes absolutely. It can worsen the heart failure itself and also provoke afib which can be poorly tolerated by heart failure patients. Imagine that your heart is already weak, and now your oxygen levels go low from not breathing, so now your heart is working even harder to circulate the blood.