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Australian researchers confirm snoring as a symptom of sleep apnea

Written by: David Castillo on November 12th, 2009

Australian researchers confirm snoring as a symptom of sleep apnea | read this item

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a serious medical condition, which reveals its symptoms during sleep. A person with OSA may be temporarily impaired, which can lead to choking and reduced blood flow to the brain—all of this can happen while he/she is sleeping.

Unfortunately, OSA cannot be easily diagnosed. It needs an over night observation period to accurately diagnose the condition.

A group of researchers at The University of Queensland and Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital in Australia, have announced that their sleep apnea observation studies have finally paid off.

The team discovered that snoring is a primary symptoms of sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea experience a drop of air passage during sleep—this impairs air flow and blood oxygenation.

“OSA has snoring as the earliest symptom; almost all patients snore,” explained the leader of the research team. “We have developed several techniques to diagnose OSA using snoring sounds alone. Sounds are acquired through non-contact recording devices, and features are extracted. At present we are capable of screening OSA with greater than 90 percent sensitivity and specificity. These results are unmatched in the world in terms of the non-invasiveness and performance, and unequivocally illustrate the viability of a snore-based, non-contact OSA screening device.”

Sleep apnea is one of the most common sleep disorders among Australians. It is estimated that no less that 800,000 across the country have the condition.

Source: Softpedia

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