Android-Arduino Platform for Detecting and Monitoring Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder in which breathing stops due to repeated obstruction of the upper airway for ten seconds or more during sleep. This serious medical condition leads to debilitating health consequences and affect health related quality of life. OSA causes a sudden drop in the level of oxygen in the blood, which leads to high blood pressure and hypoxia to body tissues.  Therefore, the correct diagnosis and continuous monitoring of OSA is critical. Polysomnography (PSG) is one of the most common diagnostic methods for sleep disorders, and is the gold standard for diagnosing this condition. In PSG, physiological signals (brain waves, blood oxygen level, heart rate, respiration) are recorded during an expensive lab stay in which the patient is required to sleep in the hospital with large and multiple wires between the human body and the machine. This study describes the development and feasibility of a low-cost platform for detecting the OSA by analyzing the accelerometer readings of the MPU6050 sensor that monitors chest movement resulting from respiratory distress and it is able to determines the position of a sleeping person by the accelerometer as well. The on-chip Bluetooth module transmits data through a mobile application from patients to health care professionals for further analysis of their health data and to monitor their respiratory status continuously. This method may provide an alternative test to PSG with a portable, convenient, inexpensive, and readily available device that would allow users to perform OSA diagnosis at home without the need for nighttime testing in a hospital sleep laboratory.