Are other overnight measurements like TST, SE, REM, etc. used to diagnose OSA or is the diagnosis just based on RDI?
RDI is used to make the diagnosis. Those measurements (TST, SE, REM) tell us about the sleep quality, and we would expect to see poor SE (sleep efficiency – time from sleep onset to final awakening actually spent asleep) in sleep apnea patients but would expect that to improve after treatment. The same would go for TST (total sleep time). With regards to REM, some patients have all or most of their sleep apnea during REM (something to do with the alterations in autonomic nervous control during that state) and this might suggest a treatment alternative – say treating the patient with a drug that suppresses REM (eg, most antidepressants) that would help to treat the sleep apnea in this patient. • May 8, 2006: We want to clarify whether the two-night (polysomnography) test is a reference test with unknown sensitivity and specificity or with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Also, the sensitivity and specificity of BQ have been calculated in the reference material. Should we estimate
