Utility of the bispectral index for assessing natural physiological sleep stages in children and young adults.

Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for the analysis of sleep architecture but is not always available in routine practice, as it is time consuming and cumbersome for patients. Bispectral index (BIS), developed to quantify the deepness of general anesthesia, may be used as a simplified tool to evaluate natural sleep depth. We objectively recorded sleep architecture in young patients using the latest BIS Vista monitor and correlated BIS values with PSG sleep stages in order to determine BIS thresholds.

Nocturnal oximetry and transcutaneous carbon dioxide in home-ventilated neuromuscular patients.

Background: Pulse oximetry alone has been suggested to determine which patients on home mechanical ventilation (MV) require further investigation of nocturnal gas exchange. In patients with neuromuscular diseases, alveolar hypoventilation (AH) is rarely accompanied with ventilation-perfusion ratio heterogeneity, and, therefore, oximetry may be less sensitive for detecting AH than in patients with lung disease.

Objective: To determine whether pulse oximetry (S(pO(2))) and transcutaneous carbon dioxide (P(tcCO(2))) during the same night were interchangeable or complementary for assessing home MV efficiency in patients with neuromuscular diseases.