An Investigation of Critical Frequency Sub-bands of Snoring Sounds for OSA Diagnosis

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a result of upper airway narrowing during sleep. The upper airway characteristics are likely to manifest in the acoustic characteristics of snoring sounds as snoring is a result of upper airway structure vibrations. In previous studies, researchers have used different regions of the frequency spectrum to diagnose OSA and determine sites of obstruction as well. However, there is no agreement among researchers about the frequency ranges critical for OSA diagnosis. This paper provides the results of a study of snore sound based OSA diagnosis performance using a multiple acoustic features and multiple classifiers. The results of the study may provide useful insights for researchers to identify frequency sub-bands critical for OSA diagnosis.