[Comparative use of MESAM IV and polysomnography in sleep-related respiratory disorders].

The high prevalence of sleep-related respiratory disturbances among the male population requires development of reliable outpatient measurement systems enabling the selection of patients to be admitted to the sleep laboratory. MESAM IV is such a system. It can record for up to 18 hours via four sensors a patient's snoring sounds, heart rate, oxygen saturation and posture. To test the reliability of the instrument we compared parallel night measurements by MESAM IV and polysomnography (PSG) via the respective Respiratory Disturbance Indices (RDI = number of apnoeas plus hypopnoeas per hour). The group of subjects studied numbered 68 patients of the sleep laboratory suspected of having sleep-related respiratory disturbances (age 18-78 years, average 50.8 yrs.; height 164-192 cm, av. 175.2 cm; weight 40-160 kg, av. 99.3 kg; body mass index 13.8-49.5, av. 32.3). Assessment of the MESAM measurements was effected on the one hand by means of a computer programme (version 1.2) that is part of the system, and on the other hand by 3 independent evaluators, two of whom were already experienced in MESAM evaluation. Each evaluator was unaware of all personal and clinical data of the patients and of the results obtained by the other evaluators. Visual assessment was performed according to fixed criteria with the inclusion of all four measurement signals of the system, whereas two mutually independent respiratory disturbance indices (RDI) were calculated by computer evaluation. The results of the various MESAM IV evaluations were compared with those of polysomnography.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)