Study Objectives: The current gold standard for assessment of obstructive sleep apnea is the in-laboratory polysomnography. This approach has high costs and inconveniences the patient, whereas alternative ambulatory systems are limited by reduced diagnostic abilities (type 4 monitors, 1 or 2 channels) or extensive setup (type 3 monitors, at least 4 channels). The current study therefore aims to validate a simplified automated type 4 monitoring system using tracheal body sound and movement data. Methods: Data from 60 subjects were recorded at the University Hospital Ulm. All subjects have been regular patients referred to the sleep center with suspicion of sleep-related breathing disorders. Four recordings were excluded because of faulty data. The study was of prospective design. Subjects underwent a full-night screening using diagnostic in-laboratory polysomnography and the new monitoring system concurrently. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was scored blindly by a medical technician using in-laboratory polysomnography (AHIPSG). A unique algorithm was developed to estimate the apneahypopnea index (AHIest) using the new sleep monitor. Results: AHIest strongly correlates with AHIPSG (r 2 = .9871). A mean ± 1.96 standard deviation difference between AHIest and AHIPSG of 1.2 ± 5.14 was achieved. In terms of classifying subjects into groups of mild, moderate, and severe sleep apnea, the evaluated new sleep monitor shows a strong correlation with the results obtained by polysomnography (Cohen kappa > 0.81). These results outperform previously introduced similar approaches.
Conclusions:The proposed sleep monitor accurately estimates AHI and diagnoses sleep apnea and its severity. This minimalistic approach may address the need for a simple yet reliable diagnosis of sleep apnea in an ambulatory setting. Clinical Trial Registration: Trial name: Validation of a new method for ambulant diagnosis of sleep related breathing disorders using body sound; URL: https://drks-neu.uniklinik-freiburg.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00011195; Identifier: DRKS00011195 Keywords: monitoring, movement analysis, respiratory sounds, sleep apnea Citation: Kalkbrenner C, Eichenlaub M, Rüdiger S, Kropf-Sanchen C, Brucher R, Rottbauer W. Validation of a new system using tracheal body sound and movement data for automated apnea-hypopnea index estimation. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(10):1123-1130.
I NTRO DUCTI O NWith a prevalence of 4% in adult men and 2% in women, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the most common sleeprelated breathing disorders.1 Additionally, more than 75% of people suffering from moderate OSA are either undiagnosed or untreated.2 OSA is characterized by multiple breathing cessations during the night due to different possible causes. If untreated, this disorder can lead to extensive daytime sleepiness 3 and an elevated risk for cardiovascular disease. [4][5][6] The main criteria used to indicate the severity of OSA is the apneahypopnea index (AHI), which describes the mean number of breathing pa...