Diagnostic Tools for Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders (SRBD)

Sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD) include those that are caused by the collapse of the upper airway during sleep (obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome - OSAHS) and those that have a central etiology (central sleep apnea, Cheyne–Stokes respiration, hypoventilation). The current gold standard for diagnosis of SRBD is a medical review of symptoms followed by a nocturnal polysomnogram (NPSG). During the NPSG, multiple neurophysiologic and cardiopulmonary signals are continuously recorded overnight in the laboratory and a count of sleep-disordered breathing events per hour of sleep is obtained. Alternatively, limited channel portable devices are being increasingly used for the diagnosis of OSAHS. Other diagnostic tools that are available but not routinely used include subjective assessment questionnaires, prediction models, and daytime physiologic tests.