Home Sleep Apnea Testing Often Is Appropriate for Diagnosing Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Laboratory-based polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). PSG employs multiple channels to assess sleep efficiency, arousals, apneas and hypopneas, oxygen saturation, and other factors. However, PSG is labor-intensive, expensive, and inconvenient. A home sleep apnea test (HSAT) employs fewer channels for collecting sleep data and is cheaper and more convenient for patients. Given these factors, third-party payers have encouraged and more institutions (including my own, Mayo Clinic Rochester) are using HSATs for diagnosing OSA. In two 2017 studies, researchers compared outcomes of PSG versus limited-channel testing or HSAT in patients with suspected OSA.

In an Australian study, more than 400 pat…