Kayyali Hani A, Weimer Sarah, Frederick Craig, Martin Christian, Basa Del, Juguilon Jesse A, Jugilioni Felicitas
CleveMed, Cleveland, Ohio 44103, USA.
Telemed J E Health. 2008 May;14(4):371-4. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2007.0058.
This research assessed the feasibility of homemonitoring of sleep disorders using small wireless technologies. There are many different types of sleep disorders that affect over 40 million patients. Sleep diagnosis is typically done in a laboratory where patients are asked to stay overnight, during which time various types of physiological signals are recorded. A more attractive alternative to in-lab testing is to evaluate patients in their own homes. In addition to convenience, the home environment is more conducive for natural sleep, which allows a true capture of disease symptoms. We describe a new easily deployable home monitor that will permit complete sleep evaluation in the patients' homes under direct remote supervision of a sleep specialist. The new technology, PSG@Home, consists of a 14-channel wearable wireless monitor and a cell phone-based Gateway to transfer data, including video, in real-time from the patient's home to a remote laboratory. Similar to in-lab recordings, data can be monitored and scored in real-time. The technology was tested on 10 fibromyalgia (FM) patients, whose constant pain has previously made them reluctant to travel to a sleep lab. All 10 studies were successful and generated high-fidelity recordings. One study experienced intermittent real-time data transmission due to sparse cellular coverage, but the data were recovered from a backup memory housed inside the patient monitor. No disconnections in sensor lead wires occurred. A new enabling home telehealth technology for real-time sleep disorders monitoring was developed and tested with encouraging preliminary results. The sample size is too small to derive any clinical conclusions about the sleep quality of FM patients. However, this study validates the underlying technology and demonstrates the role of new wireless technologies in the future of sleep disorders diagnosis.
本研究评估了使用小型无线技术在家中监测睡眠障碍的可行性。有许多不同类型的睡眠障碍影响着超过4000万患者。睡眠诊断通常在实验室进行，患者需在实验室过夜，在此期间记录各种生理信号。一种比实验室检测更具吸引力的替代方法是在患者家中对其进行评估。除了方便之外，家庭环境更有利于自然睡眠，从而能够真正捕捉到疾病症状。我们描述了一种新型的易于部署的家庭监测仪，它将在睡眠专家的直接远程监督下，在患者家中对睡眠进行全面评估。这项新技术，即家庭便携式睡眠监测系统（PSG@Home），由一个14通道的可穿戴无线监测仪和一个基于手机的网关组成，用于实时将包括视频在内的数据从患者家中传输到远程实验室。与实验室记录类似，数据可以实时监测和评分。该技术在10名纤维肌痛（FM）患者身上进行了测试，这些患者因持续疼痛此前一直不愿前往睡眠实验室。所有10项研究均取得成功，并生成了高保真记录。有一项研究由于蜂窝网络覆盖稀疏而出现间歇性实时数据传输，但数据从患者监测仪内的备份存储器中恢复。传感器导线未出现断开情况。一种用于实时监测睡眠障碍的新型家庭远程医疗技术得以开发并进行了测试，初步结果令人鼓舞。样本量太小以至于无法得出关于FM患者睡眠质量的任何临床结论。然而，这项研究验证了基础技术，并展示了新无线技术在睡眠障碍诊断未来发展中的作用。
