All Guidelines agree on: |
• Home sleep testing is preferred over in-laboratory testing in many countries. |
• Limitation of in laboratory PSG to urgent and high risk patients in most countries. |
• Assessment prior and at time of the in-person appointment for COVID-19 (symptoms, contact history, or questionnaire). |
• General precautions to avoid crowding of patients in the waiting room. |
• General protective measures for patients and staff (surgical or FFP2 masks, nitrile gloves). |
• Disposable probes, if available in most countries. |
• The sleep test device, sanitised after each use, should not be used for at least 72 h before use in another patient. |
• Screening of patients and personal staff by swab in many countries, based on COVID-19 epidemiological status and availability of the test. |
Peculiarities |
• For diagnostic study scheduling, age and comorbidities are taken into account in Spain [5], Italy [6] and USA [2, 3]. |
• Although in most countries home sleep testing is preferred, in Germany PSG remains the preferred diagnostic test [7]. In UK [8] and Italy [6] limited sleep test methodology is used besides cardiorespiratory polygraphy. |
• In USA the options of pickup/return of equipment by the patients, or a home delivery service, are suggested. |
• The use of nasal cannulas is not recommended in Italy [6]; instead respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP) is suggested for the identification of respiratory events. |
• General precautions to avoid crowding of patients in the waiting room are stricter in UK [8] and USA [2, 3], based on available sleep lab facilities to minimise face to face contact and guarantee sufficient air exchange of the room. |
• In case of high community spread of COVID-19 [4, 6], in-laboratory PSG is usually postponed or PCR is required. |