Polysomnography and ApneaGraph in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether ApneaGraph (AG) and polysomnography (PSG) deliver comparable results in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders.

PROCEDURES: A prospective study was performed, which included 14 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), hypopnea index (HI), apnea index (AI), obstructive, central and mixed apnea, oxygen saturation (SaO2), pulse and body position were simultaneously assessed by PSG and AG in each individual.

RESULTS

There was a good correlation between measurements of AG and PSG for AHI, pulse, SaO2, body position and central apnea. However, our study showed differences between PSG and AG for AI (p = 0.002), HI (p = 0.013), mixed apnea (p = 0.003) and obstructive apnea (p = 0.013). AG indicated that 2/14 patients had a pure upper airway obstruction, 6/14 patients had a predominance of lower obstruction and 6/14 patients had a predominance of upper obstruction.

CONCLUSION

AG provides comparable results for AHI, pulse, SaO2, body position and central apnea when compared to PSG, but not for the rest of the measurements. Using AG, the distribution of sites of obstructive events could be identified in this study in all of the patients.