As studies have revealed closer ties between sleep breathing disorders (SBD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) than were previously known, a new emphasis is being putting on testing CVD patients for sleep apnea and other sleep breathing disturbances early in their CVD treatment process. In the past, testing has been costly and hard to manage. But now, a new FDA-approved device from Itamar Medical is changing the game when it comes to home monitoring for obstructive sleep apnea. Called WatchPAT, it’s worn as a wrist watch and uses simple finger-based physiology as it monitors the body’s electrical impulses while a person sleeps. Patients will be glad to hear that it avoids the discomfort of air-flow based monitoring systems and its ease of use has led to a minimal failure rate of less than 1 percent. WatchPAT relies on what Itamar Medical calls the Novel PAT Signal which measures autonomic nervous system functioning by measuring the arterial pulsatile volume changes within the fingertip of the person wearing the WatchPAT device. In addition, the system is able to generate reports within minutes, improving workflow for clinicians and treatment turnaround for patients. As the Itamar folks explain, WatchPAT is simple, accurate, fast, and reliable for monitoring Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) such as sleep apnea. Watch video on the CardioVisual app that cover sleep apnea and its relation to CVD as well as how to use the WatchPAT device.