[Screening for sleep apnea: clinical use of Mesam IV and Apnoe-Check]

With the introduction of nasal continuous positive airway pressure as an effective treatment of the sleep apnea syndrome, the demand for costly polysomnographic investigations has markedly increased. Hence a reliable screening method would be desirable. Patients undergoing overnight oxymetry were simultaneously examined by MESAM (n = 54) and by Apnoe-Check (n = 23) in a prospective manner. The results were compared among themselves and with the complete overnight polysomnography (MESAM n = 38, Apnoe-Check n = 20). Simple overnight oxymetry, automatically assessed oxymetry by MESAM and apnea identification by Apnoe-Check correlated well with the polysomnographic findings. On the other hand, variation of heart rate, snoring events and changes of body position as identified by MESAM did not add relevant information. Only the detection of moderate to severe sleep apnea syndrome was satisfactory, though not infallible. Thus, there is still no screening method available to identify or exclude sleep apnea syndrome, particularly the milder form, which is nevertheless a significant disease.