Oxygen Desaturation Index calculation: impact of different methodologies

Abstract

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a syndrome characterized by episodes of airway obstruction, which causes oxygen desaturation events. These events can be identified by oximetry analysis and are used as one of the parameters to diagnose OSA. However, desaturation events have an inaccurate definition in manuals and in most of the literature. Thus, this work aims to evaluate whether different methodologies for the calculation of desaturation events impact the Oxygen Desaturation Index (ODI) and the diagnosis of OSA. The results indicated that the ODI values are significantly different from each other (p <0.001) and the methodologies provided variable performance for the diagnosis of OSA.