04-28-2013, 04:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-28-2013, 04:22 PM by sabergum.)
AHI Increase
I was diagnosed with an AHI of about 20 earlier this year, and started PAP treatment in February, with the S9 Autoset at 4-20 cmH2O. The first few days I felt a huge difference, and had nightly AHI readings of around 4-6 the first week, gradually rising to around 6-9.
I was to the hospital for a control in early April, and after consulting the stats from the S9 they decided to increase the minimum pressure to 5 cmH2O in an attempt to further reduce the AHI. I also got the H5i with Climateline when i complained about nasal congestion and dry mouth.
Immediately after this, my AHI increased dramatically. The first night (without using the humidifier) i had an AHI of 6. Next night (with humidifier) it increased to 13, and after that it seems to stay in the 15-20 range, with peaks at 24, which is higher than in my sleep study. I have tried not to use the humidifier for a week, without any effect. I have also tried to reduce the minimum pressure to 4 again, for two separate nights, and got AHIs lower than the average, but still high (17 and 9). I am somewhat reluctant of messing too much around with the settings without knowing for sure what I am doing.
Does anyone have any similar experiences or suggestions on what to do?
(The AHI numbers are from Sleepyhead, which tends to show higher AHI than on the S9, but the tendency is the same).
RE: AHI Increase
Hi sabergum and welcome
First of all, everyone is different. Humidifier is for comfort but for me cannot use CPAP without humidifier so for someone like me, humidifier is a must. I use the climate line on auto at 27C most of the time, in auto you select temp to preference and protect against rainout
Dry mouth is not uncommon with full face mask as allows you to breathe thru mouth, more humidity might helps and Biotene mouthwash
Congestion also common side effect, speak to your doctor there,re some OTC and prescription medication and also saline nasal washes with Neilmed sinus rinse or similar product would helps and recommended for CPAP users
Have you tried nasal or nasal pillows mask? these types of masks can works better if you don,t need full face mask. Chinstrap can helps keep mouth closed and minimize mouth leaks and dry mouth effect from mouth breathing
Try to download ResScan for comparison but does not work with Mac computers
How many hours do you sleep and how often you get up during the night
Whats the breakdown of AHI including central apnea events
Whats pressure and leaks stats (median, 95%, maximum)
04-28-2013, 05:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-28-2013, 05:31 PM by vsheline.)
RE: AHI Increase
(04-28-2013, 04:13 PM)sabergum Wrote: I was diagnosed with an AHI of about 20 earlier this year, and started PAP treatment in February, with the S9 Autoset at 4-20 cmH2O. The first few days I felt a huge difference, and had nightly AHI readings of around 4-6 the first week, gradually rising to around 6-9.
I was to the hospital for a control in early April, and after consulting the stats from the S9 they decided to increase the minimum pressure to 5 cmH2O in an attempt to further reduce the AHI. I also got the H5i with Climateline when i complained about nasal congestion and dry mouth.
Immediately after this, my AHI increased dramatically. The first night (without using the humidifier) i had an AHI of 6. Next night (with humidifier) it increased to 13, and after that it seems to stay in the 15-20 range, with peaks at 24, which is higher than in my sleep study. I have tried not to use the humidifier for a week, without any effect. I have also tried to reduce the minimum pressure to 4 again, for two separate nights, and got AHIs lower than the average, but still high (17 and 9). I am somewhat reluctant of messing too much around with the settings without knowing for sure what I am doing.
Does anyone have any similar experiences or suggestions on what to do?
(The AHI numbers are from Sleepyhead, which tends to show higher AHI than on the S9, but the tendency is the same).
Hi sabergum, welcome to the forum!
I think you may be being fooled into thinking the changes in the machine's settings you are making are significantly affecting the AHI. Mask leak may be major contributor to AHI.
Even if we make no intentional changes, AHI can vary a great deal from one night to the next, so, unless you absolutely can't stand something, best to leave things alone for week or month to be able to see how things are going, and make changes in consultation with your health care providers (or at least this forum).
I suggest keeping a close eye on ResScan or SleepyHeand plots of events. How many are central apneas and how many are obstructive apneas, and how high is the pressure when the events occur? (Again, make no conclusions based on just a few nights of data; look for averages across weeks.) If your events are mostly obstructive, increasing the minimum pressure a little would be expected to decrease obstructive events very slightly, on average. If your events are mostly central (or clear airway) events, it may help to turn reduce or turn off EPR if you are using it. A small percentage of people find using EPR increases the number of central apneas.
In your case, I suggest trying to learn to use ResScan 4.2, since the doctors will be more familiar with it and will likely trust its reports more, when you email reports to doctor or print out and bring to office visits.
Take care,
--- Vaughn
The Advisory Member group provides advice and suggestions to Apnea Board administrators and staff on matters concerning Apnea Board operation and administrative policies. Membership in the Advisory Member group should not be understood as in any way implying medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.
RE: AHI Increase
Hi sabergum!
Ditto here.
Keep an eye on the AHI and also check the duration of the events each day. Are they getting longer, shorter or staying the same?
Note when these occur as well. Are they in clusters or scattered about randomly?
Hopefully your OA's will fade out. Leaving some hypopneas and some CA's
Note the flow rates & pressures during these times and look for corellations.
Use the zoom in function liberally.
(Most clinics dont teach you this stuff because *it takes time* )
Good luck and hang in there!!
"With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable." - Thomas Foxwell Buxton
RE: AHI Increase
Thank you for your replies. I have to say, I am impressed by the level of knowledge in here 
To answer your questions:
I usually sleep 7-8 hours every night, and usually don't go up at all. I do wake up from time to time, maybe 3-5 times every night, but I usually fell asleep again. Around 5 - 10 % of the events are CAs but these seem to occur at times I have been awake, so I guess they are false positives. Average pressure last week is 9.4, 95th percentile is 13.7 (since I started treatment I have average of 3.9 and 95% of 12.9). I have virtually no leaks, average 0.0 and 95% of 1.2.
The OAs occur in clusters, and I usually have 2-3 periods of 30-45 minutes with no events at all. It seems to be quite consistent that the clusters start while the pressure is around 10-12.
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