Agreement between jaw‐muscle activity measurement with portable single‐channel electromyography and polysomnography in children

Background Polysomnography ( PSG ) is the gold standard for sleep bruxism ( SB ) assessment. High economical costs, complex technical equipment, and unfamiliar laboratory setting limit its use in children. Aim To determine the night‐to‐night variability of electromyography ( EMG ) episodes during a five‐night recording with the GrindCare Measure ( GCM ), and the agreement in the assessment of masticatory muscle activity ( MMA ) between GCM and PSG in children. Design Forty‐seven children from clinics of Universidad CES participated. Each participant was assessed with GCM for five consecutive nights. The last night, children underwent a single‐night PSG study, together with the GCM . Spearman correlation coefficients were used to analyze data. Results The frequency of SB occurrence was ‘sometimes’ in 12 (25.5%) and ‘usually’ in 19 (40.4%) children. Simultaneous measurements with GCM and PSG obtained during the fifth night of measurement were not significantly correlated. Correlation between GCM total EMG episodes and EMG episodes/h and PSG total SB episodes, SB episodes/h, total bursts and burst/h measured with PSG was also not significant. Conclusion EMG measurement with GCM was not accurate to detect PSG / SB in children. There was not advantage of multiple assessment for five nights with GCM , reducing the impact of night‐to‐night EMG episodes’ variability on the GCM / PSG correlation.