Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40220991›Full record

SynthesisChest2025

Machine Listening for OSA Diagnosis: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis.

Benjamin Kye Jyn Tan, Esther Yanxin Gao, Nicole Kye Wen Tan, Brian Sheng Yep Yeo, Claire Jing-Wen Tan, Adele Chin Wei Ng, Zhou Hao Leong, Chu Qin Phua, Maythad Uataya, Liang Chye Goh and 4 more

Abstract readMeta-Analysis
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Chest, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Awake speech recordings for machine learning diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea: a Bayesian meta-analysis.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2025
    Pooled it
  5. Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors.

Benjamin Kye Jyn TanDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; SingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore; Surgery Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth, Singapore.
Esther Yanxin GaoDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; SingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore.
Nicole Kye Wen TanYong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Brian Sheng Yep YeoYong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Claire Jing-Wen TanDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; SingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore.
Adele Chin Wei NgDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; SingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore; Surgery Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth, Singapore.
Zhou Hao LeongDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Surgery Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth, Singapore.
Chu Qin PhuaSingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore; Surgery Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth, Singapore; Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore.
Maythad UatayaDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Liang Chye GohDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Thun How OngSingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore; Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
Leong Chai LeowSingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore; Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
Guang-Bin HuangSchool of Automation, Southeast University, Nanjing, China; Key Laboratory of Measurement and Control of Complex Systems of Engineering, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, China; Mind PointEye, Singapore.
Song Tar TohDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; SingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Centre, SingHealth, Singapore; Surgery Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth, Singapore. Electronic address: toh.song.tar@singhealth.com.sg.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAmong 1 billion patients worldwide with OSA, 90% remain undiagnosed. The main barrier to diagnosis is the overnight polysomnogram, which requires specialized equipment, skilled technicians, and inpatient beds available only in tertiary sleep centers. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled OSA detection using breathing sound recordings. RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the diagnostic accuracy of and how can we optimize machine listening for OSA? STUDY DESIGN AND

methodsPubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore databases were systematically searched. Two masked reviewers selected studies comparing the patient-level diagnostic performance of AI approaches using overnight audio recordings vs conventional diagnosis (apnea-hypopnea index) using a train-test split or k-fold cross-validation. Bayesian bivariate meta-analysis and meta-regression were performed. Publication bias was assessed by using a selection model. Risk of bias and evidence quality were assessed by using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation tools.

resultsFrom 6,254 records, 16 studies (41 models) trained on 4,864 participants and tested on 2,370 participants were included. No study had a high risk of bias. Machine listening achieved a pooled sensitivity (95% credible interval) of 90.3% (86.9%-93.1%), a specificity of 86.7% (83.1%-89.7%), a diagnostic OR of 60.8 (39.4-99.9), and positive and negative likelihood ratios of 6.78 (5.34-8.85) and 0.113 (0.079-0.152), respectively. At apnea-hypopnea index cutoffs of ≥ 5, ≥ 15, and ≥ 30 events per hour, sensitivities were 94.3% (90.3%-96.8%), 86.3% (80.1%-90.9%), and 86.3% (79.2%-91.1%); and specificities were 78.5% (68.0%-86.9%), 87.3% (81.8%-91.3%), and 89.5% (84.8%-93.3%). Meta-regression identified increased sensitivity for the following: higher audio sampling frequencies, non-contact microphones, higher OSA prevalence, and train-test split model evaluation. Accuracy was equal regardless of home smartphone vs in-laboratory professional microphone recordings, deep learning vs traditional machine learning, and variations in age and sex. Publication bias was not evident, and the evidence was of high quality.

interpretationIn this study, machine listening achieved excellent diagnostic accuracy, superior to the STOP-Bang (snoring, tiredness, observed apnea, BP, BMI, age, neck size, gender) questionnaire and comparable to common home sleep tests. Digital medicine should be further explored and externally validated for accessible and equitable OSA diagnosis. CLINICAL

trial registrationPROSPERO database; No.: CRD42024534235; URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/).

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligencePolysomnographySleep Apnea, ObstructiveBayes TheoremHumansSensitivity and Specificityartificial intelligencecomputer auditiondeep learningmachine learningsound analysis

Identifiers

PMID40220991
PMCPMC12405919

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.