SleepStrip

[andywales]

I have been waiting for my sleep strips for over 2 weeks now, which is frustrating. Has anyone else had similar problems, or is this a one off?

[James @ Intus]

The UK importers ran out after an article hit The Sun so it's a bad stock situation but I believe any back-orders are sent out today. If you got one from us, apologies for the delays.

[leswaller]

James
Have I missed something, what is a sleep strip?

[James @ Intus]

Have I missed something, what is a sleep strip?

The SleepStrip is a means for the general public to get a quick insight into whether they may actually be stopping breathing during the night. Especially handy for those who can't rely on a partner for witnessed apnoea's.

It's not recognised as a diagnostics device as it's just a single channel and computer-based algorithm only, i.e. no sleep technician can verify how it came to its conclusion but it's a decent way for people to develop an interest in their potential condition.

People like yourself who've been diagnosed have no use for it other than recommending it to people you meet who say they may have signs of OSA. Aside from the Epworth test, it's the most affordable way to know a bit more. But we say if you are overweight, snore, Epworth > 10 and are known to gasp/choke (witnessed apnoea's) you may as well go for pulse oximetry anyway as that actually can lead to a "yes, you have it" whereas the SleepStrip is always a "risk score" only.

We send a detailed questionnaire along with it to help decide which camp they fall in, whether they should go to the NHS or whether to offer them the option of private screening and therapy.

[leswaller]

Fascinating, I was not aware of this device. Is it reusable? Could it be used to do a rough monitoring of progress after CPAP therapy, i.e. to determine whether or not the degree of OSA has reduced, as perhaps the result of losing weight?

[James @ Intus]

Single-use and not suitable for monitoring CPAP as the mask would block the airflow. You may have some success with it checking MAD success but as it only reports in brackets/indexes the data is quite raw.

For example, a "0" would mean sub 15 events. You have no idea whether that's 14 events or 0. So could still be mild OSA. With pulse oximetry you can see every event on a graph so you get much more detail. And as pulse oximetry is worn on the finger, it won't be blocked by your mask.

[leswaller]

Thanks James,
The only problem is the cost of a Pulse Oximeter that would record over the whole night period. An ordinary finger tip job wouldnt give a record (otherwise I could easily borrow one from work) Unfortunately we dont use the recording type...

[James @ Intus]

(Moved these posts as it was off-topic in the DVLA thread.)

Yes, cost would be different. We will soon offer an option where you just get the data back, without a sleep technician's review. This should be ideal for people like you who already understand what's what and don't need a confirmation they have OSA, just statistics on how they're doing. This will be about £20 cheaper, bringing it closer to the SleepStrip but still a lot more value in terms of data.

[leswaller]

I wait with bated breath (sic)