Healthy Snoring and Unhealthy Snoring

There is not really such a thing as "good" snoring, bnut there is healthy and unhealthy snoring.  Professionals used to feel that snoring was the most important risk in someone having obstructive sleep apnea.  We now realize that there are a number of other features that will help you and your physician differentiate between healthy and unhealthy snoring.

The following questions form the basis for a screening test devised by the American Society of Anesthesia to determine the risk that someone has obstructive sleep apnea.  Having undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea at the time of surgery can be very dangerous, so they needed a means to be able to effectively screen these patients as to whether they needed more testing.

The screening is simple;  here are the questions.  See how you do!

1)  Do you snore loudly or have you been told you snore loudly?  (Yes or no)

2)  Do you feel tired or sleepy during the day?  (Yes or no)

3)  Do you stop breathing, gasp or choke (or have you been told you do so) while sleeping?  (Yes or No)

4)  Do you have or are you being treated for high blood pressure?  (Yes or no)

If you are honest with yourself and answer YES to two or more of these questions, then you have a high risk of having sleep apnea.  If you are a male over the age of 50 years and you answered YES to two or more of these questions, you would be asked to undergo sleep testing before undergoing surgery.  You would then proceed to undergo home testing with a WatchPAT or StarDust recorder.  If your case was complicated with chest pain or lung disease, you might be asked to undergo a sleep test  in the hospital.

WatchPAT 200 Testing by Itamar

Currently, the Snore Shop is the only sleep diagnostic facility in Atlantic Canada to use this new technology for its portable home testing service. The Watch PAT 200, by Itamar Medical, is a non-invasive, FDA approved device for patient-friendly at-home diagnostic evaluation.

This self-contained device is worn on the wrist and uses a non-invasive finger mounted probe to measure peripheral arterial tone (PAT). Peripheral arterial tone accurately identifies respiratory events during sleep. In addition to the PAT Signal, the Watch Pat 200 records oxygen saturation, pulse rate, movement (actigraphy) and sleep/wake states.

The results from a Watch Pat 200 study have been proven to highly correlate to the sensitivity and specificity of a traditional lab-based polysomnogram. The device is so comfortable to wear that patient's sleep is minimally affected, leading to a close representation of what their true sleep patterns are like.

Stardust® Sleep Recorder

Stardust® is a small and portable sleep recorder for at-home use. The recorder generates comprehensive reports and is small enough to wear on the chest. The patient then returns the Stardust® the following day and the results are faxed to their referring physician within 2-4 days.