Background: Obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is a serious public health concern in terms of incidence. Despite being the golden measure for determining the quality of sleep and detecting sleep disrupted breathing, polysomnography (PSG) is costly, consuming time, labor-intensive, less widely accessible, needs continuous observation and skill for the interpretation.
Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of overnight pulse oximetry (OPO) as a technique for detecting OSAHS.
Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional research was done at Bab El-Shaaria University Hospitals in Cairo. In total, fifty persons were included in this research: forty patients were suffering from the manifestations of OSAHS who diagnosed by PSG and have apnea hypopnea index ≥ 5 and ten apparently healthy persons were incorporated as a control group who have not OSAHS by PSG and well matched to the patients for age, sex and BMI (body mass index).
Results: With 85% sensitivity and 60% specificity, the estimated cutoff value of OPO utilizing oxygen desaturation index (ODI) for OSAHS patient diagnosis was 17.77. The projected OPO cutoff value for severe OSAHS patient diagnosis employing the ODI was 51.115, with 80% sensitivity and 90% specificity.
Conclusion: A low-cost screening approach for OSAHS patients that has good sensitivity, specificity and accuracy that becomes better with severity is overnight pulse oximetry.