Data analysis for patients with sleep apnea syndrome: A complex network approach

Abstract

Network science is an emerging paradigm branching over more and more aspects of physical, biological, and social phenomena. One such branch, which has brought cutting edge contributions to medical science, is the field of network medicine. Along this direction, our proposed study sets out to identify specific patterns of developing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), by taking into consideration the multiple connections between risk factors in a relevant population of patients. For this purpose, we create a social network of patients based on their common medical conditions and obtain a community based society which pinpoints to specific—and previously uncharted—patterns of developing OSA. Eventually, this insight should create incentives for predicting the apnea stage for any new patient by evaluating its network topological position.