ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Otorhinolaryngology 2022 March;72(1):21-5

DOI: 10.23736/S2724-6302.21.02376-8

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Correlations between oxygen saturation parameters and obstructive sleep apnea severity in unattended portable monitoring

Chuan CHEEPCHAROENRAT ✉

Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Medical Education Center, Chiangrai Prachnukroh Hospital, Chiangrai, Thailand

BACKGROUND: Unattended portable monitoring was recommended for diagnosing Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). But portable monitoring has limitations. The respiratory event index (REI) lacks confidence in measuring the severity of OSA, especially the severity of nocturnal hypoxia. The aim was to investigate the relationship between oxygen saturation parameters and REI.
METHODS: Portable monitoring recordings of 91 patients and 15 years old and older with snoring were retrospectively analyzed. The relationship between the severity of sleep apnea and the oxygen saturation parameters were computed.
RESULTS: The study found that statistically significant positive very strong correlations were found between REI and the percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation below 90% (rs= 0.805; P<0.001), Oxygen desaturation index (rs=0.9752; P<0.001), and lowest oxygen saturation (rs=0.8947; P<0.001). REI was significantly positively strong correlated with the percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation below 85% (rs=0.788; P<0.001) and the percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation below 80% (rs=0.677; P<0.001). REI was significantly positively moderate strongly correlated with the percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation below 70% (rs=0.568; P<0.001). Statistically significant negative strong correlations were found between REI and Average oxygen saturation (rs=-0.7279; P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: REI is the result of portable monitoring showing the severity of apnea and the severity of hypoxia. These findings support the clinical reliability of the standardized OSA severity classification currently applied according to REI.

KEY WORDS: Obstructive sleep apnea; Oxygen saturation; Polysomnography