Validation study of a respiratory polygraphy (Alice PDx) for the diagnosis of sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome in pregnant women

Introduction: Increasing evidence suggests that sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (SAHS) is prevalent in pregnancy and is associated with adverse gestational and perinatal outcomes. Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard diagnostic test, however, simple screening devices for SAHS have not been validated in this population. Aims and Objectives: To determine the relationship between diagnostic test characteristics and its associations with key variables obtained from PSG and a type 3 portable sleep monitoring system (Alice PDx) in pregnancy. Methods: We included women in the third trimester of pregnancy in a multicentre observational study. All women were studied with a 22-channel PSG and simultaneously a respiratory polygraphy (PR) (Alice PDx). PSG and Alice PDx raw data were blinded scored by experienced technologists using AASM 2007 criteria. Exclusion criteria were: steroid treatment, twin pregnancy, SAHS treated with CPAP and Diabetes Mellitus. Results: 157 singleton pregnant women were studied. They were 34.6 ± 4.3 years old. Mean gestational age was 34 ± 2.9 weeks. 8.6% of the women had an AHI u003e 5 h -1 on PSG, however PR correctly classified as SAHS 4.7% of the pregnant women. The correlation coefficient between the AHI by PSG and manual PR was 0.459 (p -1 . The sensitivity of the PR was 36.4%, and the specificity was 98.2%. Conclusions: The respiratory polygraphy Alice PDx is not an appropriate tool to screen for SAHS in pregnant women.