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WatchPAT—The Best Evidence-Based Home Testing Device

WatchPAT is an FDA-approved diagnostic device that uses innovative technology to ensure the accurate detection of sleep apnea. Its ease of use is unparalleled and it is greatly complemented by the fact that WatchPAT testing is done in the comfort of your own bedroom, an environment that best reflects the pattern of your sleep habits. That fact alone may prove to be a lifeline for the millions of undiagnosed patients who are unwilling to spend the night away from home in a hospital sleep center. WatchPAT monitors changes in peripheral arterial tone and activity, as well as in blood oxygen saturation levels. It also identifies sleep apnea events just like the equipment used in polysomnography (PSG) sleep studies performed in hospital sleep labs.

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WatchPAT represents the best that 21st century medicine and science have to offer for at-home testing. Thanks to WatchPAT’s ease-of-use and automated data analysis, you don’t have to wait to get your diagnosis. Once you return the WatchPAT to your physician, you will receive an immediate detailed sleep report. This instantaneous report generation—compared to a lengthy wait in most hospital-based settings—allows you to initiate sleep apnea treatment the same day and without delay.

WatchPAT’s Unique Clinical Features

● Real Sleep Time—measures actual time asleep—not just time in bed, like other home devices, providing a more accurate assessment of sleep apnea.

● RDI and AHI—special indices that determine the severity of sleep apnea.

● ODI (Oxygen Desaturation Index)—measurement of blood oxygen levels. When not enough oxygen reaches the brain, a person awakens from sleep.

● Heart Rate—the number of heart beats per minute while sleeping.

● Body Position—notes whether you sleep on your back (supine), front (prone) or side, all which influence apnea.

● Snoring Intensity (dB)—loud snoring is a major indicator of sleep apnea.

● Sleep Stages and Architecture (wake/light/deep)—the cyclical pattern of various NREM and REM sleep stages summarized in a chart called a hypnogram.

● REM/NREM Sleep—dreaming sleep characterized by rapid eye movement (REM), the shortest portion of the sleep cycle; Non-REM (NREM) sleep, the largest portion of the sleep cycle, has three separate stages and distinct electrical brainwave patterns.

● Sleep Fragmentation—repeated short interruptions of sleep throughout the night, reducing the total amount of time spent in the deepest level of sleep.

● Sleep Statistics

WatchPAT Measures 6 Channels

● PAT—Peripheral Arterial Tone, which is a physiological signal that mirrors changes in the autonomic nervous system caused by respiratory disturbances during sleep.

● Oximetry—the measurement of oxygen levelsin the blood.

● Actigraphy—the measurement of body movement while sleeping.

● Heart Rate—the number of heart beats per minute while sleeping.

● Body Position—notes whether you sleep on your back (supine), front (prone) or side, all which influence apnea.

● Snoring—loud snoring is a major indicator of sleep apnea.

How WatchPAT Detects Apnea, Hypopnea, & RERA Events

WatchPAT utilizes Peripheral Arterial Tone (PAT), a special physiological signal that mirrors changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) caused by respiratory disturbances during sleep. The ANS regulates many of our basic functions and it does this without our conscious control. Among its activities are the regulation of blood vessel size and blood pressure, airflow in the lungs, and the heart’s electrical activity and ability to contract.

WatchPAT’s automatic algorithm analyzes the PAT signal amplitude along with the heart rate and oxygen saturation to identify breathing problems while you sleep. Using specific signal patterns, the algorithm provides two indices that allow a diagnosis of sleep apnea:

• AHI (Apnea/Hypopnea Index), which is an index used to calculate sleep apnea severity based on the total number of complete cessations (apneas) and partial obstructions (hypopneas) of breathing per hour of sleep.

• RDI (Respiratory Disturbance Index) is used to assess severity of sleep apnea by measuring respiratory efforts, or RERAs (Respiratory Effort Related Arousals). A RERA is an arousal from sleep that follows 10 seconds or more of increased respiratory effort but does not meet the criteria for apnea or hypopnea.

How WatchPAT Detects REM

REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, one of the two basic states of sleep, is notable for the presence of rapid eye movement, active brain activity, dreaming, and the absence of motor function. REM sleep is associated with considerable attenuation of the PAT signal and physiology coupled with specific variations in the PAT amplitude and rate. Based on this specific variability in the PAT and pulse rate signals, WatchPAT easily differentiates REM from NREM sleep.

How WatchPAT Detects Sleep Architecture

The cyclical pattern of NREM and REM sleep is detected by WatchPAT and recorded on its built-in actigraph. The propriety software’s automatic actigraph algorithm discriminates between sleep and wake states in normal subjects and patients with sleep apnea. This algorithm makes WatchPAT superior to any other actigraph devices because most are unable to detect sleep architecture in patients with sleep apnea.

WatchPAT’s zzzPAT algorithm is based on 14 features extracted from two time series of PAT amplitudes and inter-pulse periods (IPP). Those features are then further processed to yield a prediction function that determines the likelihood of detecting a deep sleep epoch stage during Non-REM sleep periods.

The WatchPAT Advantage Of Using Sleep Time Vs. Study Time

The amount of time actually spent sleeping is essential for determining the Respiratory DisturbanceIndex, or RDI. Most ambulatory home testing devices lack “real sleep” monitoring and are only able to calculate “total study time”—how long the monitor was actually used. The RDI is then calculated by dividing the total number of respiratory events by a substantially longer time period, thus providing a lower RDI than the actual one.

WatchPAT detects the sleep/wake state and REM sleep stage along with “total sleep time,” providing the most accurate estimation of sleep architecture.