AASM PSG manual: the R&K update?

摘要

In this issue, the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine provides a critical commentary of the AASM's PSG manual in a Special Section of Sleep Medicine. Though a controversial and complicated endeavor, the author's initiative to critique the current standards and/ or role of the new AASM manual for scoring sleep reminds us of what science is about: to extend the frontiers of understanding— to observe, to question, to probe deeper. The AASM's PSG manual, afterall, is a tool, i.e., it was designed to accomplish tasks. By calling it a tool we recognize that while some technologies are designed for general use and others are task specific, they tend to become more refined and specialized over time. Used for cross-purposes they do not always function optimally. Sometimes the handler complains. Sometimes the handler designs a better tool. Sometimes the handler does both.