USEFULNESS OF AROUSAL FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF SLEEP BREATHING DISORDER

We hypothesize that breathing disorder related arousal index (B-ArI) c an differentiate sleep breathing disorder from simple snorer when apne a hypopnea index (AHI) is low. We studied 54 patients using polysomnog raphy. Breathing disorder related arousal (B-Ar) was defined as arousa l accompanied by apnea, hypopnea, desaturation or snort. Mean AHI was 44.2 +/- 34.0/h, and B-ArI correlated significantly with AHI, desatura tion index, percentage total sleep time with SpO(2) below 90%. Breathi ng disorder related arousal index was greater than AHI when AHI was be low 2.0. In 11/54 patients, AHI was below 10, and B-ArI more than 10. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure was applied to six patients and showed reduced B-ArI. Breathing disorder related arousal index may be one of the useful indices for the diagnosis of sleep breathing dis order when AHI is less than 10.