GPs from Twente want to use the new research method OSAsense to determine more easily and cheaply whether someone is suffering from sleep apnea. According to research, 300,000 people are still walking around with the condition in the Netherlands without their knowledge.

With obstructive sleep apnea, the tongue falls at the back of the throat at night, causing the windpipe to be closed. This causes a dip in the oxygen content. The brain will get active to resolve this. As a result, you do not get into a deep sleep and people are often tired or very sleepy during the day.

The Osasense is a watch with a disposable sensor that measures the oxygen level in the blood. If that level dips five times per hour or more often in a night, this indicates sleep apnea. As soon as a doctor suspects sleep apnea in a patient, he connects the watch to the computer and enters some information from the patient. The patient takes the watch home, goes to sleep with it and returns it to the doctor the next day. The doctor then carries out an extensive analysis based on the questionnaire and the nocturnal measurements. Within a few minutes he can determine whether someone has a high chance of sleep apnea or not.

GP Veldhuis is happy with the Osasense. Heikens GP practice in Almelo, where Veldhuis works, has been using this method for a few months now, just like sixty other GPs in Twente. He says that this a very low-threshold study. It's fast and cheap and it costs around 140 euros . This means you will investigate earlier.

https://www.tubantia.nl/regio/twentse-methode-moet-patient-met-slaapapneu-helpen~a5d2464c/