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Volume 2, Issue 2 (Suppl) Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases
ISSN: 2572-5548
Page 49
conferenceseries.com
CO-ORGANIZED EVENT
August 31-September 01, 2017 Brussels, Belgium
&
International Conference on Chronic Diseases
6th International Conference on Microbial Physiology and Genomics
Home monitoring of sleep and exposure to black carbon in patients with COPD and healthy controls
Joren Buekers1,2, Erika Lutin2, Anouk Vaes1,3, Patrick De Boever1, Emiel Wouters3, Martijn Spruit3, Jan Theunis1, Jean-Marie Aerts2
1Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Belgium
2KU Leuven, Belgium
3CIRO, Netherlands
Statement of the Problem: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a highly prevalent chronic disease which is
anticipated to become the third leading cause of death worldwide in 2030. A promising new method for chronic disease
management is home telemonitoring. Although both quality of sleep and exposure to air pollution are linked with quality of
life and mortality, little attention has been directed towards home monitoring of these variables. Therefore, the aim of this study
is to explore the feasibility and value of home monitoring of sleep and exposure to air pollution. Exposure to air pollution will
be assessed as exposure to black carbon (BC), as this is considered a valuable air pollution indicator.
Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: An observational case-control study was conducted. COPD patients (n=13) and
age-sex matched healthy controls (n=8; six healthy partners and two additional healthy controls) registered sleep for one week
using a pulse oximeter and a multi-sensor activity monitor. Personal exposure to BC was measured using an aethalometer. A
GPS and travel diary linked their whereabouts with the measured BC values.
Findings: Sleep and BC were on average measured for 6.0 nights and 3.7 days respectively. COPD patients were found to have
poorer sleep quality, e.g. higher time awake after sleep onset (84.66 min. versus 36.35 min.), and worse oxygen saturation levels,
e.g. average saturation level (89.65% versus 93.34%) in comparison with healthy controls. Both patients and healthy controls
spent most time at home (91%), which resulted in a low average exposure to BC (1249 ng/m³). However, BC levels ranged from
198 ng/m³ to 3093 ng/m³, indicating large individual differences.
Conclusion & Significance: The results suggest that home monitoring of both sleep and BC provide potential valuable
information for managing the health status of CODP patients.
Biography
Joren Buekers is working as a PhD Researcher in a joint project between University of Leuven, Belgium; VITO, Belgium and; CIRO, Netherlands. His research
focusses on home monitoring of patients with COPD in order to follow up their health status and predict exacerbations. The novelty of his approach can be found in
the use of continuous measurements of a variety of variables (e.g. oxygen saturation or exposure to black carbon), instead of only performing daily spot checks of
these variables. Dynamic analyses of the resulting time series contain valuable information for future developments in home monitoring and managing of patients
with COPD.
Joren Buekers et al., Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis 2017, 2:2
DOI: 10.21767/2572-5548-C1-003