Analysis of sleep apnea
First Claim
1. A method for diagnosing sleep apnea comprising the steps of measuring thoracic volume of a patient as a function of time and determining the phase of the change of thoracic volume of said patient, measuring abdominal volume of said patient as a function of time and determining the phase of the change of abdominal volume of said patient, calculating the phase angle between said thoracic volume phase and said abdominal volume phase as a function of time, and observing changes of the phase angle over a selected time period to indicate the extent to which the phase angle between the two effort signals fluctuates.
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Abstract
A non-intrusive and quantitative method and apparatus for diagnosing sleep apnea and detecting apnea events by monitoring during sleep abdominal effort and thoracic effort, determining the phase of each effort, determining the difference in phase between each type of effort, and then determining the rate of phase angle change and standard deviation over time. Also provided may be treatment when apnea events are detected to trigger therapy apparatus such as airway positive pressure apparatus
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Citations
14 Claims
- 1. A method for diagnosing sleep apnea comprising the steps of measuring thoracic volume of a patient as a function of time and determining the phase of the change of thoracic volume of said patient, measuring abdominal volume of said patient as a function of time and determining the phase of the change of abdominal volume of said patient, calculating the phase angle between said thoracic volume phase and said abdominal volume phase as a function of time, and observing changes of the phase angle over a selected time period to indicate the extent to which the phase angle between the two effort signals fluctuates.
- 10. Apparatus for diagnosing sleep apnea comprising means for measuring thoracic effort and abdominal effort of a patient as a function of time and determining the phase of the change of each of the efforts, means for calculating the phase angle between the efforts as a function of time, means for plotting the measurements, determinations and calculations, and observing changes of the phase angle over a selected time period to indicate the extent to which the phase angle between the two effort signals fluctuates, means for determining change in phase angle, and statistical means for determining the standard deviation of the phase angle.
Specification