Detection of respiratory arousals using photoplethysmography (PPG) signal in sleep apnea patients

Abstract

Respiratory events during sleep induce cortical arousals and manifest changes in autonomic markers in sleep disorder breathing (SDB). Finger photoplethysmography (PPG) has been shown to be a reliable method of determining sympathetic activation. We hypothesize that changes in PPG signals are sufficient to predict the occurrence of respiratory-event-related cortical arousal. In this study, we develop a respiratory arousal detection model in SDB subjects by using PPG features. PPG signals from 10 SDB subjects (9 male, 1 female) with age range 43-75 years were used in this study. Time domain features of PPG signals, such as 1) PWA-pulse wave amplitude, 2) PPI-peak-to-peak interval, and 3) Area-..