title: How to measure snoring? A comparison of the microphone, cannula and piezoelectric sensor.
abstract: The objective of this study was to compare to each other the methods currently recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) to measure snoring: an acoustic sensor, a piezoelectric sensor and a nasal pressure transducer (cannula). Ten subjects reporting habitual snoring were included in the study, performed at Landspitali-University Hospital, Iceland. Snoring was assessed by listening to the air medium microphone located on a patient's chest, compared to listening to two overhead air medium microphones (stereo) and manual scoring of a piezoelectric sensor and nasal cannula vibrations. The chest audio picked up the highest number of snore events of the different snore sensors. The sensitivity and positive predictive value of scoring snore events from the different sensors was compared to the chest audio: overhead audio (0.78, 0.98), cannula (0.55, 0.67) and piezoelectric sensor (0.78, 0.92), respectively. The chest audio was capable of detecting snore events with lower volume and higher fundamental frequency than the other sensors. The 200 Hz sampling rate of the cannula and piezoelectric sensor was one of their limitations for detecting snore events. The different snore sensors do not measure snore events in the same manner. This lack of consistency will affect future research on the clinical significance of snoring. Standardization of objective snore measurements is therefore needed. Based on this paper, snore measurements should be audio-based and the use of the cannula as a snore sensor be discontinued, but the piezoelectric sensor could possibly be modified for improvement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Sleep, Landspitali-The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.|Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Erna S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Arnardottir
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Bardur
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Isleifsson
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Jon S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Agustsson
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.|School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Gunnar A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Sigurdsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Sleep, Landspitali-The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Magdalena O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Sigurgunnarsdottir
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.|Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Gudjon T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Sigurđarson
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Gudmundur
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saevarsson
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Atli T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Sveinbjarnarson
authors.affiliation: Nox Medical, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Sveinbjorn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoskuldsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Sleep, Landspitali-The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.|Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Thorarinn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gislason
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000072601:Cannula; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009666:Nose / Q000502:physiology; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D056508:Sleep Medicine Specialty / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012913:Snoring / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013016:Sound; D014732:Vibration
keywords: acoustic analysis; cannula; microphone; seep; sleep-disordered breathing; snoring