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Urine tests can be used to diagnose sleep apnea in children

Written by: David Castillo on December 7th, 2009

Urine tests can be used to diagnose sleep apnea in children | read this item

According to research, urine tests can be used to diagnose children suffering from sleep apnea.

Lead researcher Dr. David Gozal from the University of Chicago says that the sleep disorder usually requires overnight observation.

“This would alleviate the need for costly and inconvenient sleep studies in children who snore, only about 20 percent to 30 percent of whom actually have obstructive sleep apnea,” explained Dr. Gozal.

The study was conducted on 90 snoring children, who were referred to the clinic for sleep apnea evaluation. The same studies were conducted on 30 children, who did not suffer from sleep apnea—this group was the basis for comparison.

The researchers used electrophoresis to screen the children’s urine and they found out that the proteins were expressed differently for the two groups.

“It was rather unexpected,” said Dr. Gozal. “However, the field of biomarkers is one that is under marked expansion and this certainly opens the way for possible simple diagnostic screening methods in the future.”

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