UC San Diego

Sleep apnea is a multifactorial disease with a complex underlying physiology, which includes the chemoreflex feedback loop controlling ventilation. The instability of this feedback loop is one of the key factors contributing to a number of sleep disorders, including Cheyne?Stokes respiration and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A major limitation of the conventional characterization of this feedback loop is the need for labor-intensive and technically challenging experiments. In recent years, a number of techniques that bring together concepts from signal processing, control theory, and machine learning have proven effective for estimating the overall loop gain of the respiratory control system (see Figure 1) and its major components, chemoreflex gain and plant gain, from noninvasive time-series measurements of ventilation and blood gases. The purpose of this article is to review the existing model-based techniques for phenotyping of sleep apnea, and some of the emerging methodologies, under a unified modeling framework known as graphical models. The hope is that the graphical model perspective provides insight into the future development of techniques for model-based phenotyping. Ultimately, such approaches have major clinical relevance since strategies to manipulate physiological parameters may improve sleep apnea severity. For example, oxygen therapy or drugs such as acetazolamide may be used to reduce chemoreflex gain, which may improve sleep apnea in selected patients.