University Health Network

Shumit Saha

Frank Rudzicz

Azadeh Yadollahi

Described are various embodiments of an acoustic upper airway assessment system and method, and sleep apnea assessment system and method relying thereon. In one embodiment, a non-invasive method is described for assessing upper airway anatomy in a subject while breathing. This method comprises receiving as input at a hardware processor a digital signal representative of respiratory sounds generated by the subject while breathing; isolating digital respiratory sound segments from said digital signal; computationally extracting a designated spectral feature from each of said segments to characterize said respiratory sounds within each of said segments; automatically evaluating each said extracted spectral feature against a preset upper airway anatomy metric associated with said designated spectral feature to characterize a given upper airway anatomy measure in the subject while breathing; and outputting a sleep apnea severity indication based on said characterized upper airway anatomy measure.

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Toronto, Canada

Shumit Saha