A pilot study on non-contacting detection of central apneas

Abstract

Due to the unattended design screening of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has a significant error rate. Possible reasons for the screening failure are off-centered or unfixed sensors. Therefore often another screening is mandatory which is both expensive and impeding for the patient. In order to minimise screening failure it is desirable to develop contactless screening devices. In 7 patients with a total of 477 central apneas we studied the diagnostic accuracy of Sleep-Minder (Biancamed, Dublin, Ireland) that was placed approx. 1m from the patient. Sleep-Minder emitted a very weak radio wave (factor 10-100 less compared to common household devices) and detected thorax and abdomen movement by measuring the Doppler effect. SleepMinder could detect 431 central apneas. This study showed the utility of SleepMinder, a contactless screening device, for detecting central apneas. Thus, SleepMinder can be used as an unattended screening method minimising screening failure. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.