Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Feb 8, 2016; 5(1): 63-66
Published online Feb 8, 2016. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v5.i1.63
Cutting-edge technologies for diagnosis and monitoring of snoring in children
Ioannis Vlastos, Ioannis Athanasopoulos
Ioannis Vlastos, ENT Surgeon-Pediatric Otolaryngology, 10563 Athens, Greece
Ioannis Athanasopoulos, Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, 10563 Athens, Greece
Author contributions: Vlastos I was invited to write the review and wrote the initial draft; Athanasopoulos I revised the draft and contributed with several comments.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Vlastos I is a scientific adviser for Embiodiagnostics, a company specializing in molecular diagnostics.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ioannis Vlastos, MD, PhD, ENT Surgeon-Pediatric Otolaryngology, 86 Vasilissis Sophias Ave, 10563 Athens, Greece. giannisvlastos@yahoo.gr
Telephone: +30-69-76141680 Fax: +30-21-55300877
Received: July 30, 2015
Peer-review started: July 31, 2015
First decision: September 27, 2015
Revised: October 17, 2015
Accepted: December 18, 2015
Article in press: December 21, 2015
Published online: February 8, 2016
Processing time: 181 Days and 23.3 Hours
Abstract

Snoring is a very common problem in children and may be an indication of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Appropriate diagnosis is of importance due to detrimental effects of OSA. Polysomnography is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of OSA. However, it is impractical for several reasons and this is why other tests have been developed as alternatives to formal polysomnography (PSG) for the assessment of children with snoring. In this mini-review basic features of PSG as well as alternative tests are presented and future perspectives are provided in addition to current guideline for the diagnosis and monitoring of childhood snoring. The aim of this review is to highlight briefly currently developed technologies that seem promising for the evaluation of snoring.

Keywords: Snoring; Sleep apnea; Polysomnography; Molecular markers; Microelectronics

Core tip: There are several methods allowing for the screening of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients in a large scale, either in the field of molecular diagnosis or in the field of microelectronics Miniaturization technology as well as advances in wireless devices connectivity and data processing allows for more affordable, convenient and reliable recording of parameters such as oxygen saturation, actigraphy and others. In addition, advances in molecular biology allows for the detection of genetic and non-genetic biomarkers of sleep apnea. However the aforementioned markers and their combinations remain to be validated. Until then polysomnography is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of OSA.