Researchers at the University of Utah have announced that they have developed a wireless network that can monitor sleep apnea and other sleep breathing disorders without placing sensors on the patient. The technology, named BreathTaking, uses a network of 20 wireless transceivers that are placed around a hospital bed. This system reliably detected the breathing of the subject and accurately estimated the breathing rate to within 0.4 breathes per minute based on only 30 seconds of data.
The network detects the sound of a patient's breathing and collates data on the strength of the sound from all the different sensors, allowing the breathing of a patient to be tracked no matter where the patient is in the bed. On the positive side, the system allows for the tracking of patient breathing without attaching sensors to the patient, which itself can be disruptive of sleep or even dangerous. One potential use of the system proposed by inventors is for SIDS monitoring--it could identify immediately when a baby stopped breathing without the need for placing sensors on the baby.
Researchers say that it will likely take at least five years before the product is market-ready, but once available it can be used to noninvasively track apneic events in patients and evaluate the success of various sleep apnea treatments, such as oral sleep appliances.
To learn more about the most recent advancements in sleep apnea treatment that allows you to have comfortable relief from this life-threatening condition, please contact a local sleep dentist.