A feasibility study evaluating innovative in-ear pulse oximetry for unobtrusive cardiovascular homecare monitoring during sleep

In this paper, we present a novel pulseoximetric sensor which can be worn in the ear channel. In previous work, we could demonstrate that measurement of heart rate (HR), arterial oxygen saturation (S_pO₂) and respiratory related information can be performed with reliable accuracy. Since these results were obtained under laboratory conditions, we now studied the feasibility of a clinical appliance of the sensor system for cardiovascular monitoring during sleep which may allow diagnosis of sleep apnea in future. Therefore, we performed human trials in a sleep laboratory with patients with a clinical suspicion of sleep apnea. The evaluation focus on heart rate and oxygen saturation. Results was compared with standard polysomnography (PSG) measurements and demonstrate that nocturnal long-term measurement of oxygen saturation and heart rate is possible with sufficient accuracy.