Masimo (NSDQ:MASI) yesterday released results from a study exploring home pulse oximetry monitoring’s ability to serve as an initial screening method to determine which children with Down syndrome should be recommended to undergo sleep studies to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company said that children with Down syndrome are at high risk of obstructive sleep apnea, which can only be reliably diagnosed using multichannel sleep studies, which are expensive and time-consuming.
A total of 161 children with DS between 0.5 and 6 years old were selected for the trial, 25 of which were separately diagnosed with OSA. Patients were monitored overnight using Masimo’s Radical-7 Pulse CO-Oximeters with sensors placed on the great toe, Masimo said.
Measurements recorded in the trial include total artifact-free time analyzed, mean oxygen saturation, minimum SpO2, 3% oxyhemoglobin desaturation index, Delta 12s index and the number of minutes per hour that SpO2 was below 90%.
Researchers, who were blinded to which subjects had received an OSA diagnosis, found that the use of pulse oximetry monitoring reduce the amount of children with DS who are screened for OSA by approximately half, according to Masimo’s release.
Investigators noted that the findings only applied to Masimo oximeters, and could not be generalized to other devices, and that the use of a retrospective clinical dataset and anonymous data “limits our information on the wider sampling frame, demographic and clinical characteristics of these children.”
Earlier this month, Masimo posted second quarter earnings that beat expectations on Wall Street and raised its guidance for the remaining fiscal year.