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The aim of this work was to assess the accuracy of thermistors/thermocouples as devices for detecting hypopnoeas in sleep studies. Conventional thermistor/thermocouples were studied with a respiratory model allowing the simulation of inspiratory (22 degrees C) and expiratory (37 degrees C) flows. The thermistor signal (V'th) was compared with a pneumotachograph (V'th): 1) for sinusoidal and square-wave airflows (+/-0.05 to +/-0.8 L.s(-1), 10-20 breaths.min(-1) (bpm)); 2) when changing the distance from the thermistor to the nose (0-20 mm); and 3) when doubling the section of the nostrils. The thermistor was strongly nonlinear and flow reductions (hypopnoeas) were underestimated: a 50% reduction in V' (+/-0.5 L.s(-1), 15 bpm, sinusoidal) resulted in only an 18% reduction in V'th. V'th depended considerably on the airflow pattern: for V'=+/-0.5 L.s(-1), V'th increased by 100% from sinusoidal (20 bpm) to square-wave (10 bpm). For V'=+/-0.5 L.s(-1), 15 bpm, sinusoidal flow, V'th increased by 79% when the distance thermistor-nose varied from 20-0 mm, and V'th decreased by 37% when doubling the nose section. We concluded that thermistor/thermocouples are inaccurate flow-measuring devices when used at the airflow conditions typical of sleep studies. Their use for quantifying hypopnoeas may lead to considerable underdetection of these respiratory events.
Farré et al. (Thu,) studied this question.