Home titration versus sleep lab titration???

[Bekurs]

Hi,

Is there a difference between a sleep titration study at home or in the lab? I'm not even sure how this would happen at home . I can get an appt for a week long home titration next week, but I have to wait until October 29th for a lab study.

Has anyone been through a home titration? Would it be better to wait for the lab?

Thanks!

[avi123]

I can tell you about At- Home- Testing but I have not done it. But first check these posts:

search.php?keywords=at+home+testing

[LSAT]

A sleep study in a sleep lab can check for more potential problems than a home sleep study.

[BlackSpinner]

Assuming that at your sleep study they didn't find any funny breathing stuff, a home titration is not bad.
You are in your own bed and you do it for several nights. It won't catch much of the peculiar stuff but most people with garden variety OSA it works well.

Both my sleep study and titration were done at home. Where I was living at the time that was the first pass. If you failed that (as in it couldn't pin things down), then you got an in lab study done.

[brucifer]

Bekurs,

A sleep-lab titration is MUCH better because you usually have an experienced and skilled tech monitoring your breathing, monitoring your oxygen-saturation level, and adjusting your xpap pressure as needed during the titration. A home-based titration cannot even begin to compare as far as providing useful detailed data goes. In other words, in a sleep lab you will usually get a better baseline from which to begin your therapy. Some insurers such as Kaiser Permanente are going on the cheap and requiring their patients to undergo home sleep studies. I don't respect Kaiser for shoehorning their patients into that option, but it is what it is. My insurer, CIGNA, requires a sleep study and the titration to be conducted in a hospital or at an approved sleep lab. The costs are more for CIGNA and for myself (co-pay), but the details of the data are much better.

[Guest]

some folks aren't able to sleep in the lab or other places away from home. others don't like letting strange people into theirs homes after dark. then there are those at home places that are just in it for the money and work for the docs so they will be sure to find you have osa. one of those places has the word physician in the name, i forget the rest. where ever you go be sure to get a copy of the report and any prescriptions.

[Bekurs]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the input! I may want to hang on and go the the sleep lab. I have a high AHI in REM sleep only and and RERA index of 19. So it's somewhat more than a standard titration. I was curious if the home sleep titration can detect these types of events, but the impression I'm getting is that they can't or the data won't be optimal.