Thursday, November 22, 2012

Electronic nose may be able to detect sleep apnea

Although I did not even know they existed, electronic noses have been developed to diagnose certain medical disorders. This article, researchers discusses a study to determine if an electronic nose could detect obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), by measuring volatile compounds in the patinents' breath. It's not clear how the researchers determined if the participants had OSA, as the article mentions only "sleep examinations." If that means sleep studies, then that would be more accurate. The results did show that the electronic nose did predict OSA. They concluded that the electronic nose could help determine who needs a sleep study and who does not.

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