Monitoring the occurrence of apneic and hypopneic arousals
First Claim
1. A method for the determination for a patient of an index of sleep quality, the method comprising the steps of:
- obtaining two or more signals from the patient, each signal representative of a physiological variable;
correlating said two or more signals; and
recording instances where there is a coincident change in said correlated signals, the number of instances of coincidence being proportional to said index, and the number of instances of coincidence being scaled linearly to give said index.
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Abstract
The occurrence of an arousal in a patient associated with an apneic or hypopneic episode car be determined. Sensors are placed on a patient to obtain signals representative of at least two physiological variables, for example skin conductance, heart rate and blood oxygen concentration. The signals are conditioned by conditioning circuitry, then processed by a processor to correlate at least two thereof. A coincident change in at least two of the processed signals is indicative of the occurrence of an arousal, that in turn indicates an apneic or hypopneic episode has occurred. A patient thus can be diagnosed as suffering conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea.
426 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method for the determination for a patient of an index of sleep quality, the method comprising the steps of:
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obtaining two or more signals from the patient, each signal representative of a physiological variable;
correlating said two or more signals; and
recording instances where there is a coincident change in said correlated signals, the number of instances of coincidence being proportional to said index, and the number of instances of coincidence being scaled linearly to give said index. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. Apparatus for monitoring the occurrence of sympathetic arousals associated with apneic or hypopneic episodes, the apparatus comprising:
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sensor means for obtaining two or more signals from a patient, each signal representative of a sympathetic physiological variable;
means for correlating said two or more signals, a coincident change in at least two of said signals being indicative of the occurrence of an arousal; and
means for recording the occurrence of arousals.
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5. A method for monitoring the occurrence of sympathetic arousals associated with apneic or hypopneic episodes, the method comprising the steps of:
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obtaining two or more signals from a patient, each signal representative of a sympathetic physiological variable;
correlating said two or more signals whereby a coincident change in at least two of said signals is indicative of the occurrence of a said arousal; and
recording the occurrence of arousals.
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6. Apparatus for determining occurrence of at least one of apneic and hypopneic arousals in a patient, comprising:
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a skin conductance sensor connectable to an extremity of the patient;
apparatus, associated with the skin conductance sensor, that processes output of the skin conductance sensor to determine whether the skin conductance sensor output indicates at least one of an apneic and an hypopneic arousal;
a heart rate sensor connectable to an extremity of the patient;
apparatus, associated with the heart rate sensor, that processes output of the heart rate sensor to determine whether the heart rate sensor output indicates at least one of an apneic and a hypopneic arousal; and
apparatus that determines whether a positive indicator in skin conductance coincides with a positive indicator in heart rate. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of determining occurrence of at least one of apneic and hypopneic arousals in a patient in an overnight study, comprising:
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monitoring variation in a patient'"'"'s skin conductance and at least one other physiological variable indicative of sympathetic nervous system activity;
providing no CPAP treatment during a first portion of the overnight study;
providing CPAP treatment during a second portion of the overnight study; and
determining that at least one of an apneic and a hypopneic arousal has occurred when a positive indicator in skin conductance coincides with a positive indicator in said at least one other physiological variable. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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Specification