Unobtrusive Reflectance Photoplethysmography for Detecting and Severity Grading of Sleep Apnea via Oxygen Desaturation Index
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Author
Adam, Karen
Aguet, Clémentine
Theurillat, Patrick
Baty, Florent
Boesch, Maximilian
Ferrario, Damien
Lemay, Mathieu
Brutsche, Martin
Braun, Fabian
DOI
10.1515/cdbme-2025-0238
Abstract
Abstract: Sleep apnea is a common chronic sleep-related disorder which is known to be a comorbidity for cerebroand cardio-vascular disease. Diagnosis of sleep apnea usually requires an overnight polysomnography at the sleep laboratory. In this paper, we used a wearable device which measures reflectance photoplethysmography (PPG) at the wrist and upper arm to estimate continuous SpO2 levels during sleep and subsequently derive an oxygen desaturation index (ODI) for each patient. On a cohort of 170 patients undergoing sleep apnea screening, we evaluated whether this ODI value could represent a surrogate marker for the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) for the diagnosis and severity assessment of sleep apnea. As the ODI was simultaneously obtained at the fingertip, upper arm and wrist, we compared ODI diagnostic performance depending on the measurement location. We then further evaluated the accuracy of ODI as a direct predictor for moderate and severe sleep apnea as defined by established AHI thresholds. We found that ODI values obtained at the upper arm were good predictors for moderate or severe sleep apnea, with 86% accuracy, 96% sensitivity and 70% specificity, whereas ODI values obtained at the wrist were less reliable as a diagnostic tool.
Publication Reference
BMT 2025, Muttenz (Switzerland), pp. 544-547
Year
2025-09-11