Diagnostic performance of a doppler radar-based sleep apnoea testing device

Area of Science:

• Sleep Medicine
• Diagnostic Technologies
• Respiratory Disorders

Background:

• Inpatient polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) but is limited by complexity and cost.
• Home sleep apnea testing devices offer a viable alternative for high-risk patients.
• This study evaluates a contactless sleep apnea testing device (CSATD) for OSA diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the diagnostic performance of a Doppler radar-based CSATD.
• To compare CSATD results with inpatient polysomnography (PSG) in a cohort of patients at increased risk for OSA.
• To evaluate the accuracy of CSATD in identifying OSA and stratifying its severity.

Main Methods:

• A monocentric prospective study involving 102 patients with a clinical risk of OSA.
• Simultaneous sleep monitoring using CSATD (without pulse oximetry) and inpatient PSG.
• PSG analysis by certified sleep physicians blinded to CSATD results, using AASM 2012 criteria; automatic CSATD data analysis.

Main Results:

• CSATD demonstrated high sensitivity (0.89) and specificity (0.88) for diagnosing OSA (PSG AHI ≥ 5/h).
• Diagnostic agreement for OSA was 89.8% using a CSATD AHI threshold of ≥ 5/h and 100% using ≥ 15/h.
• Concordance in OSA severity classification was poor: 50% for mild, 38% for moderate, and 76% for severe OSA.

Conclusions:

• The CSATD accurately identifies patients with OSA, particularly when using an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) threshold of ≥ 15/h.
• The device's performance is suboptimal for stratifying OSA disease severity.
• CSATD shows promise as a diagnostic tool for OSA, but further refinement may be needed for severity assessment.