AUTOMATIC APNEA EVALUATION FOR DIAGNOSIS OF BREATHING DISTURBANCES ININFANTS

For adults a correlation between the occurrence of obstructive sleep a pnoea and organic diseases is proven. In preterm or newborn infants al so central or obstructive apnoea can be observed, lasting up to thirty seconds or even longer. The evaluation of apnoea is of diagnostic imp ortance and so far is carried out subjectively by physicians. We sugge st a new apnoea severity factor, calcualted automatically using respir atory and blood gas values from polysomnographic recordings. The compu ted apnoea severity values are in very good correspondence with subjec tive judgements.