Assessment of therapeutic options for mild obstructive sleep apnea using cardiopulmonary coupling measures

To examine the efficacy of various therapeutic modalities for mild obstructive sleep apnea using cardiopulmonary coupling variables of sleep quality.

A 67-year-old Caucasian subject's sleep was recorded at home for 10 nights using a type 3 sleep recording device that measured ECG and body position, followed by generation of the cardiopulmonary sleep spectrogram. Three baseline nights, one night with a sleep jacket containing 3 tennis balls to restrict sleep in the supine position, 2 nights with oxygen only delivered via a nasal cannula at a flow rate of 2 L/minute, 2 nights with a mandible advancing appliance (MAA) only, and 2 nights using oxygen at 2 L/minute with the MAA were compared.

Baseline sleep quality estimated using the ratio of high-frequency and low-frequency coupling (1.03) was below the expected normal adult values ranging from 1.67-4.0. The sleep quality ratio was significantly higher (2.08) using the MAA alone compared to baseline, sleep position restriction (1.61), oxygen therapy (0.81), and the combination of MAA with oxygen (1.66).

Sleep quality measured objectively using cardiopulmonary coupling variables differentiated the efficacy of therapeutic options for mild obstructive sleep apnea. Such an approach may have practical utility.