Diagnosis of nocturnal respiratory disorders: an evaluation of screening tests.

Polysomnography in an attended hospital laboratory setting is the gold stan dard for the diagnosis of sleep-related breathing disorders. However, this method is expensive and waiting lists are long. Portable recording devices that can be used at home have been recently developed to improve upon the p roblems of polysomnography. We review the recent portable devices validated by polysomnography and discuss their precise role in the assessment of sle ep-related respiratory disorders.