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And how to troubleshoot them during a sleep study.
Sleep technologists play an essential role in identifying and correcting artifact—unwanted signals, physiological or non-physiological—during polysomnography (PSG).
According to Todd Eiken, RPSGT, FAAST, vice president of product development at Dymedix Diagnostics, “it is critically important that a sleep disorders technologist, as well as an interpreting physician, identify and eliminate artifact that occurs during a PSG. Artifact can mask or reduce the visibility of clinically significant PSG information and also create false-positive and false-negative results.”
Below are 9 common factors that can cause sleep artifact and how to correct them.
Factor 1: Patient sweat
Brad Dotson, RRT, RPSGT, director of sales and marketing at Neurotronics, advises that the temperature in the sleep study room can impact sweat artifact. “Obstructive sleep apnea patients tend to sweat profusely. Having the ability to lower room temperature via air conditioning or fan can reduce sweat artifact,” he says, adding that sweat artifact can cause channels move in a swaying motion away from and back to their baseline.
Amy Schwarz, BSRT, RRT-SDS, clinical product support specialist for Philips, recommends that it is best to “keep the patient room a little cooler than for patient comfort.”
Factor 2: Lead wires
Mike Olmsted, president/CEO of ElectraMed Corp, offers several solutions for artifacts caused by lead wires.
The first is use the right wire for the job. “Do not mix different style leads of different lengths, cup configurations, and properties within an input channel,” he says.
Bundling wires together instead of allowing them to just hang free between the acquisition amplifier and sleep subject helps to reduce noise artifact and stabilize the baseline.
“It is also a good idea to change reusable wires at least once a year,” he adds. “As these wires age, the...