• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2005

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has drawn increasing attention as medical community has become to be aware of its co-morbidities and complications, especially cardiovascular complications and excessive daytime sleepiness with accident proneness. As of now, polysomnography is the standard tool to diagnose sleep apnea and estimate the treatment validity. However, its being rather expensive and inconvenient, alternate diagnostic tools have been proposed including wrist actigraphy. So far, actigraphies have been adopted usefully to field-survey sleep apnea prevalence. In this study, we attempted in a sleep laboratory setting to assess the supplemental value of actigraphy in diagnosing OSAS. Methods: This study was done at the Division of Sleep Studies, the Seoul National University Hospital. Thirty-seven clinically suspected cases of OSAS underwent the one-night polysomnography, simultaneously wearing an actigraphy on non-dominant wrist. We analyzed the data of 27 polysomnographically-proven OSAS patients (male：female 20： 7；age $47.6{\pm}12.9$ years old；age range 23 to 72 years) with no other sleep disorders. We calculated RDI (respiratory disturbance index) from the polysomnography data and FI (fragmentation index) from the actigraphy data. Pearson correlation was calculated in order to compare FI with RDI and to evaluate the supplemental diagnostic value of the actigraphy. Results: Mean total sleep time on polysomnography was $401.4{\pm}57.8\;min$ (range of 274.0 to 514.1 min). Mean RDI was $21.7{\pm}20.4/hour$. Mean FI was $21.9{\pm}13.0/hour$. RDI and FI showed significant correlation (r=0.55, p<0.01). Conclusions: Wrist actigraphy in OSAS patients generates a comparable outcome to polysomnography, in measuring the nocturnal sleep fragmentation. The actigraphy could be used supplementally in inpatients, outpatients, and field survey subjects, if polysomnography is unavailable or impossible. In follow-ups related with nasal CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), upper airway surgery, and oral appliance in OSAS patients, the actigraphy might play a more dominant role in the future.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.92-98
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• 2007

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is the most common form of sleep-disordered breathing and often presents with comorbid depressive symptoms. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between depressive symptoms and sleep parameters as measured by nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) and simultaneous wrist actigraphy. Methods: Two hundred sixty-four subjects with clinically suspected cases of OSAS underwent one-night polysomnography, while simultaneously wearing a wrist actigraphy device. They also completed two questionnaires；the Epworth Sleepiness Scale-Korean version (ESS-K) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Of the cases studied, 105 subjects were proven by NSPG to have OSAS without other sleep disorders. NPSG and wrist actigraphy data from the subjects were analyzed. Pearson correlation and paired t-test were used in order to evaluate the relationship between depressive symptoms and sleep-parameters. Results: Mean age of the subjects was $46.1{\pm}13.1$ years. Means of the ESS-K score and BDI scores were $10.9{\pm}4.7$ and $12.8{\pm}8.1$, respectively. NPSG sleep parameters significantly differed from those of wrist actigraphy. There was no correlation found between subjects' respiratory disturbance index (RDI) and BDI scores. When directly comparing sleep parameters between subjects who were more depressed versus subjects who were less depressed, both total sleep time and sleep efficiency were decreased in the more depressed. A correlation between RDI and ESS-K scores was also found in the more depressed group. Conclusions: Although our findings suggest that there is no relationship between RDI and depressive symptoms, there are other significant differences in the sleep parameters between subjects who are more depressed versus those without depression. We recommend that patients with depression should also be evaluated for clinical symptoms of OSAS.