The use of an ambulatory, automatic sleep recording device (QUISI version 1.0) in the evaluation of primary snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) evaluation with polysomnography (PSG) according to the Rechtschaffen & Kales (R&K) rules is time and cost consumptive, but ambulatory polygraphy systems do not allow EEG recording routinely. As a consequence, the number of sleep disordered events cannot be calculated exactly. QUISI is a one-channel, self-applicable ambulatory EEG recording device. The present study was designed as a prospective, non-randomized clinical trial. This investigation evaluated the results of 40 patients with primary snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea measured with level 1 PSG and QUISI simultaneously. Fifteen patients (37.5%) were primary snorers with normal sleep profiles, whereas 25 patients (62.5%) suffered from obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) with a Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI) of 38.6 +/- 23.8. The mean total sleeping time (TST) was underestimated by 4.5%, while Sleep Efficiency Index (SEI) was understimated by 4.6% by the QUISI device compared with PSG. The correlation between the QUISI and the PSG estimates for single sleep stages demonstrated only moderate correlation. The statistical significance for sleep stage 2 was r = 0.42, P = 0.002; for sleep stage 3/4, r = 0.31, P = 0.02; and for WAKE, r = 0.33, P = 0.01. Sleep stage 2 as well as sleep stage 3/4 were underestimated by QUISI substantially (difference: -5.6% and -10.3%), while WAKE was overestimated by QUISI to a larger amount (difference: +10.4%). Sensitivity and specificity of QUISI to recognize pathological sleep profiles compared with PSG/R&K were 0.92 and 0.96 respectively. QUISI is able to evaluate normal versus altered sleep profiles in patients with primary snoring and OSA. Comparing the quartile ranges, we found substantial differences between QUISI and PSG/R&K. QUISI gives an impression of sleep architecture and objective verification of a sleep disturbance in an ambulant setting but cannot replace the sleep laboratory-based PSG.