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AHI says 7.4 still?
#11
RE: AHI says 7.4 still?
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INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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#12
RE: AHI says 7.4 still?
(08-10-2013, 06:56 PM)samurai Wrote: Hello.
I had a home sleep study in June 2013 and my AHI was 12.
Bought a Respironics Auto CPAP, and after 8 weeks use, it says that I still have a 7.4 AHI.
Shouldn't it be zero? Why isn't it correcting it all the way when it is an auto? It is set for a range of 4-20.
What should I do? I know that my mask falls off from time to time (the darned alarm doesn't like the pillows), and is this factored in?
Please advise.
I also use a Respironics Auto CPAP (DS760TS). My sleep study AHI was 57 and my pressures were 25/20 with a Bilevel setting of 2 (high pressure). I decided to set the thing on auto after a week or so of use. I gave it a test, thinking I could set it at 4, set the pressure support, and it would find the correct place in the world.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Eventually I settled on 16 with a pressure support of 5 (16/21 baseline).

If you look at the machine's behavior in Sleepyhead software, it shows that the pressure ramp-ups in the case of apneas are slow. Mine will ramp up a little most nights for awhile, and then ramp down (slowly)

You might also check if your positionally sensitive. During the sleep study, the techs were unable to titrate when sleeping on my back. So the 25/20 is on my side (and the pressure limit of most machines). When I tried sleeping on my back, the AHI score went from 0.5 to 15. I've had a score of zero, but just for a few nights. I suspect that many "normal" people around would have occasional hypopnias and are asymptomatic. Zero every night is probably too much to wish for.

You might want to raise the floor on that auto. The machine has some smarts, but in the real world, it's still a bit of a dunce.


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#13
RE: AHI says 7.4 still?
(08-10-2013, 06:56 PM)samurai Wrote: I had a home sleep study in June 2013 and my AHI was 12.
Bought a Respironics Auto CPAP, and after 8 weeks use, it says that I still have a 7.4 AHI.
Shouldn't it be zero? Why isn't it correcting it all the way when it is an auto? It is set for a range of 4-20.
What should I do? I know that my mask falls off from time to time (the darned alarm doesn't like the pillows), and is this factored in?

There are two types of apneas. Your sleep study likely showed that your airway is collapsing when you fall asleep, thus the need for a CPAP machine to keep it inflated.

When a human being starts using a CPAP machine it can cause a condition known as CPAP-induced central apnea. Which means that even though your airway is kept open by the machine, for some reason we just stop breathing from time to time. And when that happens the CPAP machine scores that as an apnea. So this may explain why your AHI is 7.4.

Don't despair. There are things we can do to fix it, plus it tends to fix itself on its own anyway. In other words, sometimes it takes a few weeks for the AHI to drop. Meanwhile, we can tweak the machine's settings to help you along the way.

Before we worry about any of that we have to make sure you have a mask that doesn't leak and that stays on your face. It's very common for a new CPAP user to have to try out several masks to find one that works well.

What did you mean when you said that the alarm doesn't like the pillows?
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#14
RE: AHI says 7.4 still?
Hello. Someone recently wrote to me on email, and the darned if I couldn't find it. I hope this post gets to them.

Someone was asking if I still had problems with my AHI being above 5.
The answer is, "sometimes".

I found out recently that I suffer from SIBO, and actually my CRP (measure of inflammation-- look it up) is through the roof at 10! I have learned that my inflammation is systemic, and from eating foods that violate FODMAP principles. Since changing my diet, I feel a LOT better. Not apnea issues are from simply being overweight; some are from eating foods that don't agree with you.
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