Oximetry use in obstructive sleep apnea

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Overnight oximetry has been proposed as an accessible, simple, and reliable technique for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) diagnosis. From visual inspection to advanced signal processing, several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of oximetry as a screening tool. However, there is still controversy regarding the general application of oximetry as a single screening methodology for OSAS.

Areas covered: Currently, high-resolution portable devices combined with pattern recognition-based applications are able to achieve high performance in the detection of this disease. In this review, recent studies involving automated analysis of oximetry by means of advanced signal processing and machine learning algorithms are analyzed. Advantages and limitations are highlighted and novel research lines aimed at improving the screening ability of oximetry are proposed.

Expert commentary: Oximetry is a cost-effective tool for OSAS screening in patients showing high pretest probability for the disease. Nevertheless, exhaustive analyses are still needed to further assess unattended oximetry monitoring as a single diagnostic test for sleep apnea, particularly in the pediatric population and in populations with significant comorbidities. In the following years, communication technologies and big data analyses will overcome current limitations of simplified sleep testing approaches, changing the detection and management of OSAS.

KEYWORDS:

• Oximetry
• obstructive sleep apnea syndrome
• screening
• signal processing
• pattern recognition
• machine learning

Declaration of interest

D. Álvarez was in receipt of a Juan de la Cierva grant IJCI-2014-22664 from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been partially supported by the projects DPI2017-84280-R and RTC-2015-3446-1 from Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the project 66/2016 of the Sociedad Española de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica (SEPAR), and the project VA037U16 from the Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León and FEDER. D. Álvarez was in receipt of a Juan de la Cierva grant IJCI-2014-22664 from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.