New research, presented at CHEST 2007, the 73rd annual international
scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) in
Chicago, shows that remote infrared imaging (IR-I) can accurately detect
abnormalities during sleep, without ever coming in contact with the patient.
Results of the study by Jayasimha Murthy and his colleagues from the
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the University of
Houston, and Memorial Hermann Sleep Disorders Center in Houston, Tex, showed
that IR-I detected 20 sleep-disordered breathing events, compared with 22
events detected by the nasal-oral thermistor, and 19 events detected by
nasal pressure.
Given the outcome, researchers suggest that IR-I was in near-perfect
agreement with conventional methods and that it represents a noncontact
alternative to standard nasal-oral thermistors.
