Continuously monitoring CO₂ as an indicator of ventilation is important to achieve the best results from everyday sleep studies – and understanding why is essential for sleep lab clinicians.

This presentation explains how respiratory diseases impact the ventilation and perfusion status of common sleep study participants, and how, depending on the method of CO₂ measurement, the quality of information regarding a patient’s ventilatory status can be affected.

To help adult and pediatric clinicians make the best decisions for the patients, the advantages and drawbacks of the most common methods of monitoring CO₂ are explored.

Sleep lab clinicians will come away with new understanding about the most accurate and effective methods of monitoring ventilation, particularly when titrating support during “split night” studies, and when studying patients with potential ventilation perfusion mismatch, which can create challenges for accurate measurement.

AARC: 1 contact hour Continuing Respiratory Care Education (CRCE) credit by the American Association for Respiratory Care. Course #185591000 (expires 8/1/20220)

AAST: 1 CEC by the American Association of Sleep Technologists, AAST CEC Program Number A31359 (Expires August 5, 2022)