An evaluation of indexes as support tools in the diagnosis of sleep apnea

This article evaluates several indexes as support tools to diagnose patients with Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome (SAHS). Some of these indexes, such as the Apnea-Hypopnea Index, have been standardized and studied in depth in the literature. Other indexes are used extensively in the reports that commercial polysomnographs generate. However, they have not been studied in detail and clinicians have no standardized guidelines for interpreting them. Examples are the mean and maximum duration of apneas and hypopneas. Finally, several novel indexes proposed by the authors are also evaluated. To evaluate the indexes, we have used a database of 274 patients who have undergone a polysomnographic test. Several feature selection techniques were used to assess the capability of each index to discriminate between healthy and SAHS patients. The capability of the indexes for diagnosing the patients was analyzed by using decision trees which were trained using each index individually, and all the indexes together. Our results suggest that some indexes which are often present in the reports of commercial polysomnographs provide little or no information. On the other hand, other indexes that are usually not considered have a great capability to discern between SAHS and control patients.