Sleep diagnostics at home

newtom · Post by **newtom** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:04 am

When I was reading up after being diagnosed with apnea, I was struck that in my home country (the Netherlands) sleep centers generally allow patients to do a first diagnostic measurement in their own homes. They basically hook the patient up with the electrodes, let them go home overnight, and have the patient return in the morning. It strikes me that this has many advantages: it is cheaper, more comfortable, and, perhaps most important, provides less of a deterrent for potenial apnea sufferers (after my diagnosis I talked to a few people who suffer from bad sleep but who could not imagine how they would be able to sleep at all in a hospital, all wired up). Do similar options exist in the U.S.?

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:05 pm

Unfortunately, no. Unless, that is, you count those of us who took it upon themselves to perform diagnosis via oximetry.

Out of curiosity, newtom, how much cheaper is this compared to a sleep lab study?

Regards,
Bill

krousseau · Post by **krousseau** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:41 pm

Medicare requires that the sleep study be supervised/observed by trained personnel. Since many insurance companies model their requirement on the Medicare model a person would have to be very careful before doing a home study in the US.

SnoreGal · Post by **SnoreGal** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:45 pm

Sleep Diagnostic Center in Chicago, IL does. You simply have to have a room in your place they can work out of and a place for them to park.

sleepyinsunnyvale · Post by **sleepyinsunnyvale** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:53 pm

Home study option does exist here in the US.
That's the only study I've ever had done (Administered by Stanford Sleep Center). Got my results and Doc Rx'd an APAP. That was 5 years ago. No problem. AHI<2.5 as reported by Encore Pro.

Pirate · Post by **Pirate** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:48 pm

I did my original sleep study at home through SleepQuest. My ENT doc faxed SleepQuest a presciption for the sleep study and SleepQuest sent the equipment to me via fedX. I hooked myself up according to the instructions and slept the night in my own bed. The next day I sent the equipment back to SleepQuest via FedX. SleepQuest sent the results to my ENT who then ordered me to the local hospital for a titration study. You can do your own titration study through SleepQuest using an autopap machine. Anyway, the titration study in the hospital sucked, but I did get my first night of full 5 hours sleep in several years after the attendant came in the room to fit me with a mask and started me on pressure. After all that, I ended up with my first cpap machine within two weeks of the original sleep study. This was all about 4.5 years ago and I've never looked back. Starting on cpap was one of the best things I ever did even though I resisted it for several years. http://www.sleepquest.com

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krousseau · Post by **krousseau** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:58 pm

I think that is the outfit William Dement is connected to. It is unfortunate Medicare insists on the supervised sleep study. A home study seems like it would work better for a lot of people with OSA at least. My in lab studies were not very pleasant. I especially thought the titration was a farce-but I have to admit the numbers they got and the numbers I get with the APAP & software are comparable-reassuring.

bdp522 · Post by **bdp522** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:00 pm

I know a couple of people on xpap. I'm the only one that had to go to a sleep study center for my test and they all had their equipment within two weeks, it took me months.

sleepyinsunnyvale · Post by **sleepyinsunnyvale** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:04 pm

I don't know if there is a correlation between home study and the speed you get you machine but I had my machine within a month of taking the home sleep study. That includes the lab results, app't with Dr to go over results and app't at DME.