Detection of sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome with ECG derived respiration in Chinese population

Evaluation of sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) is mainly based on the polysomnogram (PSG), which is considered as the golden diagnostic criteria. As a novel noninvasive and low cost alternative method to detect SAHS patients, the diagnostic power of ECG-derived respiration (EDR) hasn't been well determined. In light of this, we tested whether EDR can be utilized as a feasible tool to diagnose SAHS in Chinese patients. Overnight sleep investigation was performed in 120 subjects using polysomnogram (PSG) and 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiogram (AECG). The apnea hypopnea index (AHI) was calculated from EDR and PSG respectively. With EDR assessments, 77 subjects were determined as SAHS (+), 43 were diagnosed as SAHS (-). The diagnostic accordance rate was 87.5% and the area under curve was 0.938. The coefficient correlation of AHI between EDR and PSG was 0.879 (P <0.001), while the correlation of maximum apnea and hypopnea time duration were 0.716 (P <0.001) and 0.281 (P <0.005), respectively. All correlations were statistically significant (P <0.01). EDR can be used as a practical tool for the diagnosis of SAHS.