Automated Detection of Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Events Based on 60 GHz Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave Radar Using Convolutional Recurrent Neural Networks: A Preliminary Report of a Prospective Cohort Study

Radar is a promising non-contact sensor for overnight polysomnography (PSG), the gold standard for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This preliminary study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of the automated detection of apnea-hypopnea events for OSA diagnosis based on 60 GHz frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar using convolutional recurrent neural networks. The dataset comprised 44 participants from an ongoing OSA cohort, recruited from July 2021 to April 2022, who underwent overnight PSG with a radar sensor. All PSG recordings, including sleep and wakefulness, were included in the dataset. Model development and evaluation were based on a five-fold cross-validation. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the classification of 1-min segments ranged from 0.796 to 0.859. Depending on OSA severity, the sensitivities for apnea-hypopnea events were 49.0–67.6%, and the number of false-positive detections per participant was 23.4–52.8. The estimated apnea-hypopnea index showed strong correlations (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.805–0.949) and good to excellent agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.776–0.929) with the ground truth. There was substantial agreement between the estimated and ground truth OSA severity (kappa statistics = 0.648–0.736). The results demonstrate the potential of radar as a standalone screening tool for OSA.