PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - John Benjamin
AU  - Ritesh Chaube
AU  - Chinappa Narendra
TI  - Reducing investigation time for the diagnosis of the obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) by combining oximetry with a screening algorithim
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - p4962
VI  - 38
IP  - Suppl 55
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4962.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4962.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38
AB  - Introduction: Oximetry and limited channel sleep studies (LCSS) for the diagnosis of OSAS have sensitivities of 87% and 82-94% respectively and specificities of 65% and 82-100% respectively [1]; implying that oximetry is useful for confirming OSAS in high probability patients but not at ruling it out. LCSS seems useful for both. However,the average time taken for oximetry is 15 minutes compared with 75 minutes for LCSS. (Average times were pooled form 5 Welsh sleep centres). We proposed an investigative approach that combined a screening algorithm [2] that would allocate high probablity patients to oximetry and low probability patients to LCCS. High probability subjects with negative oximetry also proceeded to LCSS.View this table:Screening AlgorithimMethods: We recruited consecutive sleep referrals over a 5 month period. We compared the total and average time taken with this algorithim against a strategy (control arm) of LCSS for every patient. The study was powered for 50 patients, 30 had been recruited to date.Results: N=30. Median age 53 years, 19 were male.See table for results; average time saving – 24.5 minutes per patient.View this table:Conclusion: We propose that allocating high probability subjects to oximetry and using LCSS for low probability subjects and for oximetry negative high probability subjects results in significant time and resource savings.References:1. Flemons WW,et al.Chest 2003;124:1543-1579.2. Netzer NC,et al.Ann Int Med 1989;131:485-491.