PAT–based technology represents a validated portable monitoring modality for the diagnosis of OSA. The study was done to assess the diagnostic accuracy of PAT-based technology in a large point-of-care cohort of patients studied with concurrent PSG.

500 concomitant PSG and WatchPat tests were analyzed. Median PSG AHI was 18 events/h and PAT AHI3% was 25 events/h. The average bias was + 4 events/h. Diagnostic concordance was found in 42%, 41%, and 83% of mild, moderate, and severe OSA, respectively. Among patients with PAT diagnoses of moderate or severe OSA, 5% did not have OSA and 19% had mild OSA; in those with mild OSA, PSG showed moderate or severe disease in 20% and no OSA in 30% of patients. On average, using a 3% desaturation threshold, WatchPat overestimated disease prevalence and severity and the 4% threshold underestimated disease prevalence and severity by −6 events/h.

The study concluded that although there was an overall tendency to overestimate the severity of OSA, a significant percentage of patients had clinically relevant misclassifications.

Reference: https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.8620

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