Patent ID: 7169110

Claim:
An apparatus for diagnosing sleep apnea, which detects a temporary cessation of breathing while a subject is sleeping by applying light to and processing light output from a predetermined part of a subject's body, the apparatus comprising: a light source unit for sequentially generating a first light signal of a first wavelength and a second light signal of a second wavelength according to a predetermined control signal, the first wavelength and the second wavelength being different; a photodetecting unit for detecting the first and second light signals output by the light source unit and then applied to the predetermined part of the subject's body, and for converting the detected first and second light signals into first and second electric signals; a diagnosis unit for substantially removing a time delay between the first and second electric signals output from the photodetecting unit, for calculating a ratio of DC components of the first and second electric signals, and for comparing the ratio with a predetermined reference value to diagnose sleep apnea; and a controller for outputting the predetermined control signal to the light source unit to generate the first and second light signals, and for providing the predetermined reference value to the diagnosis unit.