The use of portable monitoring for sleep apnea diagnosis in adults.

Due to increasing demand for sleep services, there has been growing interest in ambulatory models of care for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The implementation of alternative approaches to the current management by full polysomnography (PSG) in the sleep laboratory is necessary for diagnosing this syndrome due to the high cost of full-night PSG. A good alternative option for OSA diagnosis is portable monitoring (PM), which is known for its accuracy, ease of management and lower cost when compared with full PSG.

Portable monitoring devices in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea: current status, advantages, and limitations.

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the use of portable monitoring devices for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. These have the potential to be used in lieu of the more complicated and uncomfortable alternative, polysomnography, which has long been considered to be the gold standard for the diagnosis of this relatively prevalent condition. Following their approval in 2008 by the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency which administers Medicare and Medicaid in the United States, there has been extensive discussion about the utility and validity of these devices for use in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.