Developing Wireless Patch System to Detect Sleep Apnea at Home

A new wearable device has been developed by Georgia Tech researchers to accurately measure obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) which occurs when the body repeatedly stops and restarts breathing for a period. It also measures the quality of sleep people get when they are at rest. The prevalence of sleep disorders, like sleep apnea (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Health Care Savings: The Economic Value of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Care for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Go to source), is on the rise in the U.S., but current protocols to conduct clinically accepted assessments are expensive and inconvenient.

While there are two additional types of sleep apnea — central and complex — obstructive sleep apnea is the most common. In addition to snoring and arrested breathing episodes, it is generally characterized by waking up suddenly, gasping for air or choking, and high blood pressure.

Scope of Remote Patient Monitoring Technology in Sleep Apnea Diagnosis

Lack of quality sleep can exacerbate other health issues in people with existing illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes. Even those who don’t have other health ailments can have serious complications from sleep apnea because the longer it goes undetected and untreated, the more it will affect their hearts and brains over time.

Under conventional methods, people having some sleep issue or disorder must go to a medical facility, where they are monitored overnight and tethered to a series of wired probes that record brain, eye, and muscle activity.

The wearable sleep monitor patch developed by a team of researchers is made of silicone and fits over the forehead, with a second, smaller silicone attachment that molds to the chin.

Conventional existing sleep testing is occurring in sleep labs because of device limitations. This at-home wearable device could be the alternative to the more expensive medical procedures at sleep labs. Researchers have reported their findings in Science Advances.

Advancing Healthcare Through the Development of Biosensors Detecting Sleep Apnea

Seeing the toll sleep apnea was taking on the U.S. population, researchers set out to apply the new wearable device research to the industry with a wireless sleep monitoring patch system.

The patches — which have an accuracy rate of 88.5% for sleep apnea detection — have the thickness of an adhesive bandage. Three embedded electronic sensors send signals wirelessly via Bluetooth to record brain, eye, and muscle activity (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
At-home wireless sleep monitoring patches for the clinical assessment of sleep quality and sleep apnea

Go to source).

Advertisement

That data is relayed to an app on a smart device such as a phone or tablet for further study and evaluation. The device can be used at home, negating the need to go to a sleep center or medical facility for overnight monitoring.

Underlying health issues are partly behind the increase, but key drivers are the types of food and portion sizes of the modern American diet as well as stress.

Advertisement

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, the technology behind the wearable device records the data to give a sleep score that determines if the patient has sleep apnea or if they are getting enough quality sleep. In the study, when measured against a controlled group of eight sleep apnea patients whose issues were detected under conventional testing means with an accuracy rate of 88.5%. For comparison, an existing headband device on the market had an accuracy rate of about 71% and cannot measure muscle activities.

The machine learning algorithms used can predict the likelihood that a person who doesn’t show any symptoms of sleep apnea will develop it at some point. Therefore, wireless patch solves a multipronged challenge to the conventional testing methodology by addressing current patient issues with comfort, time, access, and cost (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Current Status and Future Challenges of Sleep Monitoring Systems: Systematic Review

Go to source).

Even for people who don’t show symptoms, you won’t know whether you have the sleep disorder until it gets severe. This new device can stop sleep apnea before it starts.

References:

1. Health Care Savings: The Economic Value of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Care for Obstructive Sleep Apnea - (https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.6034 )
2. At-home wireless sleep monitoring patches for the clinical assessment of sleep quality and sleep apnea - (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg9671 )
3. Current Status and Future Challenges of Sleep Monitoring Systems: Systematic Review - (https://biomedeng.jmir.org/2020/1/e20921/ )

Source-Eurekalert