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Investigation of breathing-disordered sleep quantification using the oxygen saturation signal

This thesis investigates the feasibility of using the non-invasive biomedical signal of oxygen saturation, or SpO<sub>2</sub> , to diagnose a sleep disorder known as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Hypopnoea Syndrome (OSAHS). Epidemiologically, OSAHS is the most common condition investigated by sleep clinics. In a patient suspected of having the disorder, the upper airway is obstructed during sleep and a cessation in respiration results. An apnoea is defined as a temporary cessation of breathing. Similarly, a hypopnoea is defined as any reduction in breathing (i.e., less severe than an apnoea). The work has three main objectives; the first being to establish automated evaluation procedures for methods of quantifying apnoeic activity from the SpO<sub>2</sub> signal, the second being to accurately identify apnoeic and normal activity on a minute-by-minute basis, the third being to create a Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI) based on the analysis which is comparable to the gold-standard Apnoea Hypopnoea Index (AHI) derived by experts. The detection of apnoeic activity is determined using three separate analyses: time domain, frequency domain, and autoregressive modelling with an incorporated amplitude criterion. A training dataset is utilised for algorithm development, and an independent dataset is employed for testing . All three methods result in comparable overall classification accuracies of: 81.2% (time domain), 82.1% (frequency domain), and 80.0% (autoregressive modelling with amplitude). In addition, particular attention is given to the resultant sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy values partitioned according to patient category; i.e., patients with OSAHS may be divided into normal, mild, moderate and severe. Lastly, a simple RDI is computed based on the automated analyses; i.e., the number of apnoeic segments detected divided by the total number of segments used. A comparison between computed RDI and AHI values for the test database show correlation values above 0.8. In conclusion, this thesis shows that through the automated analysis of the SpO<sub>2</sub> signal, OSAHS severity in patients suspected of having the disorder can be quantified. The AR-modelling with an incorporated amplitude criterion, in particular, shows the most promise for further work in this area.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:670058
Date January 2008
CreatorsLazareck, Lisa
ContributorsTarassenko, Lionel
PublisherUniversity of Oxford
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttps://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:63671d89-e3a4-49e6-a486-3f605cacd1c1

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