ISSN: 2167-0277
Melissa Brijbassi, Takatoshi Kasai, Luigi Taranto Montemurro and T Douglas Bradley
Background and Objective: To evaluate the effects of a t-shirt designed to prevent patients from sleeping supine (anti-supine shirt) on the frequency of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep (apnea-hypopnea index) in patients with supine-related obstructive sleep apnea.
Methods: Twenty-seven consecutive patients found to have supine-related obstructive sleep apnea on a diagnostic polysomnogram were prescribed an anti-supine shirt and then underwent a follow up polysomnogram while wearing this shirt. We then compared the amount of supine sleep time and apnea-hypopnea index between the baseline and follow-up polysomnograms.
Results: A comparison between the baseline and follow-up polysomnograms revealed that there was no significant difference in total sleep time (from 297.2 ± 76.5 to 289.8 ± 101.6 min, p=0.654), but there was a significant reduction in the amount of supine sleep time while wearing the anti-supine shirt (from 149.2 ± 82.9 to 21.3 ± 52.9 min, p