title: Home sleep testing for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea-indications and limitations.
abstract: The increasing prevalence and recognition of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) coupled with an awareness of its detrimental health consequences has resulted in the need for timely and cost efficient access to diagnostic sleep testing and treatment. As a result, increased emphasis is being placed on simplified ambulatory models for the diagnosis and treatment of OSA using home sleep testing (HST). An ambulatory sleep program requires the combination of clinical assessment for identifying patients at high risk for OSA, HST for the diagnosis of OSA, and home auto-titrating positive airway pressure units for treatment. Randomized control trials evaluating the efficacy of this ambulatory approach to diagnose and treat OSA in high-risk patients without significant medical comorbidities reveal the potential for equivalent patient outcomes when compared with the use of polysomnography and in-laboratory continuous positive airway pressure titration.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Sharon De
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Clinical Immunology, and Allergy, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Littner
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Clinical Immunology, and Allergy, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Michelle R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Zeidler
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000379:methods*; D045422:Continuous Positive Airway Pressure / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000379:methods; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis*