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The high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea has led to increasing interest in ambulatory diagnosis. The SleepMinder™ (SM) is a novel non-contact device that employs radiofrequency wave technology to assess the breathing pattern, and thereby estimate obstructive sleep apnea severity. We assessed the performance of SleepMinder™ in the home diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea. One-hundred and twenty-two subjects were prospectively recruited in two protocols, one from an unselected sleep clinic cohort (n = 67, mean age 51 years) and a second from a hypertension clinic cohort (n = 55, mean age 58 years). All underwent 7 consecutive nights of home monitoring (SM HOME ) with the SleepMinder™ as well as inpatient-attended polysomnography in the sleep clinic cohort or cardiorespiratory polygraphy in the hypertension clinic cohort with simultaneous SleepMinder™ recordings (SM LAB ). In the sleep clinic cohort, median SM HOME apnea-hypopnea index correlated significantly with polysomnography apnea-hypopnea index (r = .68; p < .001), and in the hypertension clinic cohort with polygraphy apnea-hypopnea index (r = .7; p < .001). The median SM HOME performance against polysomnography in the sleep clinic cohort showed a sensitivity and specificity of 72% and 94% for apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 15. Device performance was inferior in females. In the hypertension clinic cohort, SM HOME showed a 50% sensitivity and 72% specificity for apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 15. SleepMinder™ classified 92% of cases correctly or within one severity class of the polygraphy classification. Night-to-night variability in home testing was relatively high, especially at lower apnea-hypopnea index levels. We conclude that the SleepMinder™ device provides a useful ambulatory screening tool, especially in a population suspected of obstructive sleep apnea, and is most accurate in moderate-severe obstructive sleep apnea., (© 2019 European Sleep Research Society.)

Study Objectives: Systemic hypertension is highly prevalent in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) but there are limited data on OSA prevalence in cohorts with hypertension comparing dippers and nondippers. We investigated this relationship in a clinic-based cohort of patients with hypertension who were not screened for any pretest possibility of OSA., Methods: A total of 100 patients with hypertension aged (mean ± SD) 58 ± 10 years, body mass index 30.5 ± 6.1 kg/m2, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale score 6 ± 4 were included. All underwent overnight attended sleep studies and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. The primary study end-point was OSA prevalence based on the standard criteria of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 15 events/h in patients with dipping and nondipping nocturnal blood pressure., Results: Results showed 10.5% of dippers and 43.5% of nondippers had an AHI ≥ 15 (chi-square P = .001). In univariate analysis, AHI correlated significantly with blood pressure dip ( r = -.26, P < .05), as did ESS ( r = -.28, P < .05). In linear regression, AHI predicted the magnitude of blood pressure dip (standardised β = -.288, P = .03), whereas age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure did not., Conclusions: Patients with nondipping nocturnal blood pressure are at high risk of OSA, regardless of symptom profile, which supports the recommendation that such patients should be assessed for co-existing OSA., (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Sleep Medicine. All rights reserved.)