Update on the use of portable monitoring system for the diagnosis of sleep apnea in specific population

The prevalence and severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is higher in specific population: children, elderly, obese and patients with pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases, compared to the general population. OSA is associated with greater morbidity and mortality in these patients. Although full-night polysomnography is still the gold standard diagnostic sleep study for OSA, it is a time consuming, expensive and technically demanding exam. Over the last few years, there is growing evidence on the use of portable monitors (PM) as an alternative for the diagnosis of OSA. These devices were developed specially for sleep evaluation at home, at a familiar environment, with easy self-application of monitoring, unattended. The use of PM is stablished for populations with high pre-test probability of OSA. However, there is a lack of studies on the use of PM in age extremes and patients with comorbidities. The purpose of this review is to present the studies that evaluated the use of PM in specific population, as well as to describe the advantages, limitations and applications of these devices in this particular group of patients. Although the total loss rate of recordings is variable in different studies, the agreement with full-night polysomnography justifies the use of PM in this population.