Background and objective
Obstructive sleep apnoea is a prevalent and considerably underdiagnosed disease. The development of cost‐effective, home‐based, automatic diagnostic devices to improve the diagnosis accessibility is therefore essential.
Methods
In this study, a new portable polygraph (BTI‐APNiA) was used to validate automatic scoring. This five‐channel device records respiratory flow, oxygen saturation, heart rate, body position and snoring. The validation was performed in two phases. In the first phase, manual and automatic scorings of a new respiratory polygraphy (RP) device (BTI‐APNiA) were compared. In the second phase, automatic analysis performed with BTI‐APNiA was compared with manual scoring of a validated RP device (Embletta Gold).
Results
Phase I was completed by 424 patients (50.5% males, 52.2 ± 12.4 years, BMI of 25.4 ± 4.8 kg/m2 and Epworth Sleepiness Scale score of 8.0 ± 4.0). Manual and automatic analysis resulted in an apnoea–hypopnoea index (AHI) of 13.7 ± 12.7 and 14.0 ± 12.5 (P > 0.05), respectively. The interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.99 (P < 0.001). During Phase II, 28 patients were evaluated (72.0% men, 49.1 ± 10.9 years, BMI of 27.1 ± 4.2 kg/m2 and Epworth Sleepiness Scale score of 7.5 ± 4.2). Manual analysis of Embletta Gold recordings indicated an AHI of 12.3 ± 14.0, while automatic analysis of the BTI‐APNiA was 13.4 ± 14.7 (P > 0.05). The ICC was 0.68 (P < 0.01).
Conclusion
The automatic analysis of the BTI‐APNiA is as accurate as manual analysis of AHI. This automatic analysis compared well with the manual analysis of a validated RP device (Embletta Gold).