UC San Diego

Study objectives

The efficacy of portable-monitor (PM) sleep testing in children is not well understood. While most studies have evaluated PM in a lab setting, the utility of PM in the home environment is relatively unknown. We sought to determine whether home PM accurately diagnoses obstructive sleep apnea in adolescents and to assess patient satisfaction with home PM sleep testing.

Methods

We evaluated adolescents (age 12-18 years) with suspected obstructive sleep apnea using a PM device. In addition to in-laboratory polysomnography (PSG), all participants had PM testing performed twice, once in their home and once concurrent to in-laboratory PSG. PM was compared to PSG using 2 primary outcomes: the apnea-hypopnea index and oxygen desaturation index. All participants were approached for interview to evaluate their experience with PM sleep testing.

Results

Twenty adolescents participated. Bland-Altman analysis comparing the apnea-hypopnea index and oxygen desaturation index determined by home or in-laboratory PM to in-laboratory PSG revealed mostly agreement; however, some deviations were observed when either parameter was markedly increased. While PM testing tended to underestimate the apnea-hypopnea index, the diagnostic agreement between home PM and PSG was 80% (by the White-Westbrook method). Most preferred PM to PSG and found PM easy to very easy to set up.

Conclusions

In a small cohort of adolescents, our study supports the application of home PM in the diagnosis of suspected obstructive sleep apnea. Until studies implementing PM using larger cohorts become readily available, the findings from this preliminary study could contribute to adolescents receiving sleep apnea therapy more promptly.

Clinical trial registration

Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov; Identifier: NCT03748771. At the time of issue publication, this registration is not publicly available because the trial includes a device that is not approved or cleared for use in pediatric populations. Once the device is FDA cleared, the registration will become public.