On-Line Detection of Apnea/Hypopnea Events Using SpO $_{\bf 2}$ Signal: A Rule-Based Approach Employing Binary Classifier Models

This paper presents an online method for automatic detection of apnea/hypopnea events, with the help of oxygen saturation (SpO₂) signal, measured at fingertip by Bluetooth nocturnal pulse oximeter. Event detection is performed by identifying abnormal data segments from the recorded SpO 2 signal, employing a binary classifier model based on a support vector machine (SVM). Thereafter the abnormal segment is further analyzed to detect different states within the segment, i.e., steady, desaturation, and resaturation, with the help of another SVM-based binary ensemble classifier model. Finally, a heuristically obtained rule-based system is used to identify the apnea/hypopnea events from the time-sequenced decisions of these classifier models. In the developmental phase, a set of 34 time domain-based features was extracted from the segmented SpO₂ signal using an overlapped windowing technique. Later, an optimal set of features was selected on the basis of recursive feature elimination technique. A total of 34 subjects were included in the study. The results show average event detection accuracies of 96.7% and 93.8% for the offline and the online tests, respectively. The proposed system provides direct estimation of the apnea/hypopnea index with the help of a relatively inexpensive and widely available pulse oximeter. Moreover, the system can be monitored and accessed by physicians through LAN/WAN/Internet and can be extended to deploy in Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.