Sleep bruxism (BXM) is the result of rhythmic muscular masticatory activity (RMMA) and can be captured by masseters surface electromyography (sEMG). Despite the multiple adverse negative consequences of BXM, a simple reliable home diagnostic device is currently unavailable, with in laboratory audio-video polysomnography (type I PSG) remaining the gold standard diagnostic tool. Mandibular movements (MM) recordings during sleep can readily identify RMMA, are simple to set up and can be easily repeated from night to night. Here, we aimed to identify stereotypical MM in patients with BXM, and to develop RMMA automatic detection and BXM diagnosis using an artificial intelligence-based approach.
Methods: MM were recorded by a dedicated sensor (Sunrise, Namur, Belgium) in 12 patients with BXM during type I PSG. The Sunrise system consists of a coin-sized hardware that is comfortably placed on the subject’s chin. Its embedded inertial measurement unit communicates via Bluetooth with a smartphone and automatically transfers MM signals to a cloud-based infrastructure at the end of the night. Data processing and analysis are then performed in Python programming language. A time series cluster analysis was applied to sequences of masseters sEMG and MM signals during BXM episodes (n=300) and during spontaneous micro-arousals (n=300). Then, a convolutional neuronal network (CNN) was developed to identify BXM and distinguish it from spontaneous micro-arousals while exclusively relying on MM signal.

April 2020