STUDY OBJECTIVES: Autotitrating continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices adjust pressure in response to changes in airflow and are an alternative to attended in-laboratory titration polysomnography (PSG) to determine optimal pressure levels. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the System One RemStar Auto A-Flex (Philips Respironics, Murrysville, PA, USA) automatically adjusted positive airway pressure (APAP) mode to manually titrated, fixed pressure CPAP and to validate the device's breathing event detection capabilities against attended in-laboratory PSG.

METHODS: Sixty-one patients investigated in five centers for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea between May 2012 and June 2013 were invited to participate. Participants underwent two full-night attended polysomnograms in random order with manually titrated, fixed pressure CPAP versus APAP.

RESULTS: Fifty-three participants with a mean apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 45.9 ± 23 completed two sleep studies and were included in the analysis. There were significant but not clinically relevant differences between APAP and CPAP respectively: Apnea index [1.0 (2.8 ± 0.8), median (mean ± standard deviation)] versus [1.8 (5.3 ± 11.5)], p = 0.004; percentage of N1 sleep [12.3 (15.9 ± 0.5)] versus [14.3 (18.9 ± 12.7)], p = 0.028. AHI values differed between PSG [2.8 (5.5. ± 9.3)] and device [3.7 (6.0 ± 8.6)], p = 0.003). Regarding residual events detection, intraclass correlation coefficients for AHI were strong (0.956, p < 0.001) and the area under the curve was 0.988 (AHI cut-off value of 10).

CONCLUSIONS: The new APAP modality was effective and residual apnea-hypopnea indices calculated by the device strongly correlated to those assessed by PSG.

COMMENTARY: A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 167.