Prediction of Apnea-Hypopnea Index Using Sound Data Collected by a Noncontact Device

To predict the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using data from breathing sounds recorded using a noncontact device during sleep.

Prospective cohort study.

Tertiary referral hospital.

Audio recordings during sleep were performed using an air-conduction microphone during polysomnography. Breathing sounds recorded from all sleep stages were analyzed. After noise reduction preprocessing, the audio data were segmented into 5-second windows and sound features were extracted. Estimation of AHI by regression analysis was performed using a Gaussian process, support vector machine, random forest, and simple linear regression, along with 10-fold cross-validation.

In total, 116 patients who underwent attended, in-laboratory, full-night polysomnography were included. Overall, random forest resulted in the highest performance with the highest correlation coefficient (0.83) and least mean absolute error (9.64 events/h) and root mean squared error (13.72 events/h). Other models resulted in somewhat lower but similar performances, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.79. The estimated AHI tended to be underestimated as the severity of OSA increased. Regarding bias and precision, estimation performances in the severe OSA subgroup were the lowest, regardless of the model used. Among sound features, derivative of the area methods of moments of overall standard deviation demonstrated the highest correlation with AHI.

AHI was fairly predictable by using data from breathing sounds generated during sleep. The prediction model may be useful not only for prescreening but also for follow-up after treatment in patients with OSA.