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* From the Department of Pulmonology (Drs. Brijker and van den Elshout), Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, The Netherlands; and the Department of Pulmonology (Drs. Heijdra and Folgering), Dekkerswald, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Correspondence to: Folkert Brijker, MD, Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Rijnstate Hospital, PO Box 9555, 6800 TA Arnhem, The Netherlands; e-mail: zonnebloem{at}compuserve.com
| Abstract |
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Design:The following forms of monitoring were evaluated prospectively on 3 nights for each patient: oximetry at home; polysomnography (PSG) at home; and PSG in the hospital.
Setting: Department of Pulmonology, Rijnstate Hospital Arnhem, The Netherlands.
Patients: Fourteen stable COPD patients (7 men; median age, 71.5 years; age range, 59 to 81 years; FEV1, 32.5% predicted; FEV1 range, 19 to 70% predicted) participated in the study. All subjects had significant instances of nocturnal arterial oxygen desaturation. Those patients with a sleep-related breathing disorder or cardiac failure were excluded from the study.
Measurements and
results: The mean nocturnal arterial oxygen saturation
(SaO2) level was higher during PSG monitoring
at home (89.7%; range, 77 to 93%) than during oximetry monitoring
(88.5%; range, 80 to 92%) [p < 0.025]. The fraction of time
spent in hypoxemia (ie, SaO2
< 90%) was lower during PSG monitoring at home (40.8%; range, 5 to
100%) than during oximetry monitoring (59.9%; range, 6 to 100%)
[p < 0.01]. Desaturation time (
SaO2
> 4%) was lower during PSG monitoring at home (22.1%; range, 3 to
63%) during PSG monitoring at home than during oximetry monitoring
(50.4%; range, 4 to 91%) [p < 0.01]. A correction for actual
sleep during PSG monitoring reduced the differences between PSG
monitoring at home and oximetry monitoring, although a difference in
the desaturation time remained (PSG monitoring at home, 31.9% [range,
2 to 75%]; oximetry monitoring, 50.4% [range, 4 to 91%])
[p = 0.041]. A comparison of sleep architectures for nights when
PSG was being monitored showed a higher arousal index in the hospital
than at home (PSG monitoring in the hospital, 5.6 arousals per hour
[range, 2 to 16 arousals per hour]; PSG monitoring at home, 2.5
arousals per hour [range, 1 to 6 arousals per hour])
[p < 0.025], but no differences in SaO2
levels were found between PSG monitoring at home and PSG monitoring in
the hospital.
Conclusion: The artifacts due to sleep-monitoring equipment may cause an underestimation of the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia in COPD patients. The addition of an unfamiliar environment causes more sleep disruption, but this does not affect nocturnal SaO2 levels further.
Key Words: COPD nocturnal hypoxemia oximetry polysomnography
| Introduction |
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When measuring nocturnal oxygen saturation, the monitoring conditions may cause disturbances in sleep architecture. Studies on polysomnography (PSG) show a delayed sleep onset, sleep fragmentation, frequent arousals, and shortened periods of REM sleep compared to a normal sleep cycle in a comparable age group.9 10 11 12 It is unclear to what extent these sleep disturbances can be attributed to monitoring equipment or to an unfamiliar hospital environment. Because of these sleep disturbances, the first monitoring night often is used for acclimatization. In patients with COPD, however, repeated measurements during consecutive and nonconsecutive nights in the sleep laboratory show a similar change in sleep architecture and nocturnal oxygen saturation.2 13 14 If sleep is disturbed, wakefulness and arousals may prevent oxygen desaturations in patients with COPD. As a result, an overestimation of the mean nocturnal oxygenation may be found. It was hypothesized that both monitoring equipment and an unfamiliar hospital environment may have a disturbing effect on sleep, resulting in fewer instances of oxygen desaturation. To distinguish both effects, the following three conditions were evaluated: oximetry at home; PSG at home; and PSG in the hospital. First, it was expected that the addition of polysomnographic equipment in the home situation would result in fewer instances of desaturation, compared to monitoring with oximetry alone. Second, it was expected also that the unfamiliar environment during PSG monitoring in the hospital would result in fewer instances of desaturation than during PSG monitoring at home.
| Materials and Methods |
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Subjects
The study was performed with 14 stable COPD patients, who were
selected consecutively from the outpatient department. COPD was defined
according to the standards of the American Thoracic
Society.15
All subjects had a smoking history of > 10
pack-years (smokers, 3 patients; ex-smokers, 11 patients). Other
characteristics of the study population are presented in Table 1
. The stability of the disease was defined as a fluctuation in
FEV1 of < 10% in the preceding 3 months and an
absence of exacerbation in the preceding 8 weeks before the study
began. None of the patients were oxygen-dependent. Subjects with a
history of obstructive or central apneas or an overlap syndrome were
excluded. Those with a history of cardiac failure also were excluded,
and an ultrasound of the heart was performed to rule out current
cardiac failure.
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Measurements
Oximetry was performed at night using the same portable pulse
oximeter (model 8500M; Nonin Medical Inc; Plymouth, MN). Values
were measured by a finger probe. Subjects were instructed to
switch the oximeter on and off at the same time each night to match the
recorded time during the 3 nights.
SaO2 values were stored in memory and
processed afterward using appropriate software (NN856 03/95; PROFOX
Associates Inc; Escondido, CA).
PSG in the hospital (Voyageur; Nicolet Biomedical Inc; Madison, WI) was performed in the sleep laboratory. The EEG, the electro-oculogram, and the mental electromyogram were recorded to determine sleep states and were assessed manually by the neurology laboratory technicians according to the guidelines of Rechtschaffen and Kales.17 Respiration was monitored by thoracoabdominal movements, using inductive plethysmography (model 1482; Pro-Tech Services Inc; Woodinville, WA) and by airflow thermistors (Infinity sensor 1450; New Life Technologies Inc; Midlothian, VA). Oximetry was performed simultaneously.
PSG at home (model 9000; Oxford Instruments Medical Systems; Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK) included EEG, electromyogram, electro-oculogram, and simultaneous oximetry. Thoracoabdominal movements and airflow were not measured at home.
The severity of nocturnal hypoxemia was evaluated by the following primary variables: the mean nocturnal SaO2 value; the fraction of time spent in hypoxemia (ie, SaO2, < 90%), and the fraction of time spent in desaturation. A desaturation was defined as a decrease in SaO2 of > 4% from the first 5 min of the recording (baseline awake).14 The baseline asleep was defined as the first 5 min of continuous sleep after the first onset of sleep state II. Arousals were defined according to the preliminary recommendations of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (formerly known as the American Sleep Disorders Association).18
Because no sleep states were measured during the night of oximetry monitoring, SaO2 variables were only presented for the entire night. The assessment of the sleep states during the nights of PSG allowed a calculation of these variables during actual sleep (REM and non-REM sleep) and during REM sleep specifically as well. If the mean SaO2 level during the entire night differed between the oximetry and PSG values, an additional comparison was performed between the PSG values during actual sleep and the oximetry values for the entire night to determine whether this correction of the PSG results allowed a more reliable assessment of nocturnal SaO2 values.
The daytime PaO2, the daytime SaO2, and the baseline awake SaO2 were correlated to the mean nocturnal SaO2 value during different nights in order to evaluate the predictive value of these variables for assessing the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia.
Statistical Analysis
For statistical analysis, an appropriate software package (SPSS,
version 6.1; SPSS Inc; Chicago, IL) was used. Because we aimed to
evaluate the equipment effect (ie, oximetry vs PSG at home)
and the environmental effect (ie, PSG at home vs PSG in the
hospital), differences between 2 nights were compared selectively by
paired t tests or by Wilcoxon signed rank tests if not
normally distributed. A p value < 0.025 was considered to be
statistically significant, because two selective comparisons were
performed. p Values between 0.025 and 0.05 are presented as true
values.
A Pearson correlation was used to perform bivariate correlation analysis, or a Spearman correlation was used if values were not normally distributed. All results are expressed as median (range).
| Results |
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Correlation of Daytime and Nocturnal Oxygenation
The correlations between daytime oxygenation variables and
nocturnal SaO2 are shown in Table 5
. The strongest correlation was found between the baseline awake
SaO2 and the mean nocturnal
SaO2.
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| Discussion |
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It was hypothesized that monitoring equipment would cause sleep disturbances and, consequently, would prevent oxygen desaturations. Polysomnographic equipment was added to oximetry in the familiar home situation and these were compared to oximetry alone. A disturbed sleep was found during PSG monitoring, which is in agreement with the hypothesis. The median sleep time was 5.5 h. This is rather low, taking into account a normal sleep time of 6 to 6.5 h at this age.19 The median fraction of time spent in REM sleep was 17.6%, as compared to 20 to 23%, which is common at this age in normal subjects.19
As expected, the nocturnal SaO2 value was lower during oximetry monitoring than during PSG monitoring. The differences in the mean SaO2 values were rather small, but the time spent in desaturation decreased by more than half from 47.5% (oximetry) to 20.9% (PSG). The SaO2 values during PSG monitoring were corrected for actual sleep, to determine whether this resulted in a more reliable assessment of nocturnal SaO2. The modified SaO2 values approximated the data attained for the entire night of oximetry monitoring. Although not completely statistically significant, the fraction of time spent in desaturation remained higher during oximetry monitoring, which may suggest the presence of longer periods of REM sleep or of non-REM sleep states III and IV during home oximetry monitoring.
A correlation analysis was performed between the daytime PaO2 and SaO2 values and the baseline awake SaO2 and the mean nocturnal SaO2 values in order to evaluate the predictive value of these variables for assessing the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia. The predictive values of daytime PaO2 and SaO2 for assessing the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia were statistically significant but rather poor, which is in agreement with earlier studies.20 21 The correlation between the baseline awake SaO2 and the mean nocturnal SaO2 values was stronger for all evaluated nights. This may suggest that a short recording made with the patient in bed in the evening provides a better prediction for assessing the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia.
It was also hypothesized that the addition of an unfamiliar hospital environment would influence the assessment of nocturnal SaO2 levels. PSG monitoring in the unfamiliar hospital environment was, therefore, compared to PSG monitoring at home. Sleep was more disturbed in the hospital than at home, as indicated by the higher arousal index. A higher total number of arousals and a lower fraction of time spent in REM sleep also were found during PSG were in the hospital, but these differences did not reach complete statistical significance. As oxygen desaturations occur mainly during REM sleep,1 2 3 a lower fraction of time spent in REM sleep was expected to result in fewer desaturations and higher SaO2 values for monitoring performed in the hospital. However, the mean nocturnal SaO2 values during the entire night or during actual sleep were not different between monitoring performed in the hospital and that performed at home. Apparently, the variation in sleep architecture was too small to cause significant differences in mean SaO2 values. This is obvious, when it is taken into account that PSG monitoring in the hospital comprised more equipment than that performed at home. Monitoring performed in the hospital included measurements of thoracoabdominal movements and airflow as well. It appears that the addition of an unfamiliar environment had no further artificial effects on the recorded SaO2 values, even when SaO2 is evaluated in combination with an expanded set of equipment.
A number of portable sleep study systems have been validated for use with patients who have obstructive sleep apneas or hypopneas, mainly because of benefits in time and cost.22 Although not all devices record sleep quality, OSAS patients may sleep better at home than in the sleep laboratory.23 In contrast to previous studies evaluating patients with sleep apneas or hypopneas, the present study describes patients with COPD. The disturbed quality of sleep during PSG monitoring corresponds well with previous findings.9 10 11 12 23 It is interesting to note that poor quality of sleep was reported as a common feature in COPD patients.24 25 26 27 The authors note that the sleep disturbances may be caused by other factors, such as hypoxemic stress. The present results clearly show lower nocturnal SaO2 values during oximetry monitoring than during PSG monitoring. This suggests a disturbing effect of monitoring equipment on the quality of sleep, especially on the amount of REM sleep. Hospital environmental factors were found to disturb sleep.28 In agreement with this, our results show more sleep disturbances during monitoring in the hospital than at home.
The study nights occurred in a fixed sequence. However, a potential order effect certainly cannot explain the differences shown in SaO2 values between the study nights. Subjects may have experienced some general unfamiliarity with the study, causing some sleep disruption, mainly during the first night. Still, most desaturations were found during oximetry monitoring, which occurred on the first night of study in our design. A randomized order, with oximetry performed during the second or the third night, could possibly have resulted in an improved sleep comfort and even more desaturations. A first-night effect, however, was not found in a study14 evaluating COPD patients during consecutive and nonconsecutive nights. It is unlikely that the sequence of the nights influenced the measured findings, but the findings may warrant a future study that would be conducted in a randomized design with a larger group of COPD patients.
PSG monitoring is not a routine investigation in COPD patients to evaluate the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia, as no studies have shown the benefit of correcting isolated nocturnal hypoxemia on long-term outcome. Nevertheless, nocturnal hypoxemia in COPD can be associated with complications, such as arrhythmia, polycythemia, pulmonary hypertension, or peripheral edema.6 Because supplemental oxygen therapy reduces pulmonary artery pressure in COPD patients with isolated nocturnal hypoxemia, recognizing patients at risk can be important.7 A value of > 30% of time spent in hypoxemia proved to be causally related to permanent pulmonary hypertension in COPD.8 Thirteen of our subjects spent > 30% of their time in hypoxemia during oximetry monitoring, compared to 9 patients during PSG monitoring at home, which suggests that 4 of the 13 subjects (31%) at risk would have been missed by looking at PSG monitoring. Therefore, the performance of home oximetry monitoring as the method of choice for evaluating the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia in COPD patients is of clinical importance. It can be performed easily, it is cheap, and, as this study shows, it provides reliable information. A wider use of nocturnal home oximetry monitoring may reveal many COPD patients with severe nocturnal hypoxemia who are unknown or have not been detected by PSG monitoring. Moreover, home oximetry monitoring may serve as an appropriate tool for evaluating the long-term benefit of treating nocturnal hypoxemia. One needs to consider that full PSG monitoring is still needed, as patients experiencing an overlap syndrome (ie, the simultaneous presence of COPD and OSAS) are at high risk for developing respiratory insufficiency and pulmonary hypertension.6 29 Regarding the fact that three patients needed to be withdrawn from our study, it appears that a sleep disorder is hard to rule out in the absence of clear clinical evidence. The SaO2 values probably will be higher during PSG monitoring. A correction for actual time asleep may allow a more reliable, but still incomplete, assessment of nocturnal SaO2 levels.
In conclusion, when monitoring nocturnal SaO2 levels in patients with COPD, the impact of the sleeping conditions needs to be taken into account. It seems that monitoring equipment has a substantially more confounding effect on the assessment of nocturnal SaO2 levels than does an unfamiliar environment. Sleep disturbances can prevent oxygen desaturation and can cause an underestimation of the degree of nocturnal hypoxemia in patients with COPD.
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| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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This study was supported by GlaxoWellcome, The Netherlands.
Received for publication April 25, 2000. Accepted for publication November 29, 2000.
| References |
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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C. A. Lewis, T. E. Eaton, W. Fergusson, K. F. Whyte, J. E. Garrett, and J. Kolbe Home Overnight Pulse Oximetry in Patients With COPD: More Than One Recording May Be Needed Chest, April 1, 2003; 123(4): 1127 - 1133. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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