How does the polygraph work to detect obstructive sleep apnoea?

19 July 2024

We tell you how these devices work, which are used by sleep management nurses in primary care centres for patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnoea in order to measure key variables during a night at home.

The sleep management nurse at the Alfons Moré primary care centre in Salt, Elena Olabarrieta explains in this demonstration video how patients should wear the polygraph when they sleep at home.

The sleep nurses of Girona and Lisbon primary care centres associated with the INNOBICS-SAHS project give out the device to patients aged between 30 and 70 with suspected obstructive sleep apnoea who pass certain tests at the same GP consultation. The polygraph measures key variables to detect obstructive sleep apnoea while patients sleep overnight at home.

The day after the test, patients must return the polygraph first thing in the morning so that the sleep management nurses can disinfect the device for new use and share the data with the Virtual Sleep Unit, responsible for diagnosis and proposed treatment.

With this new care process, 80% of patients are being treated within primary care plus the support of the Virtual Sleep Unit. The project is consequently reducing waiting lists at Hospital Sleep Units and improving the patient experience, as it is preventing them from having to spend a night in the hospital to be tested.

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