[Diagnosis] 6 Months and no help

[Sleepster]

Have about 100 days of rescan and sleepyhead charts in notebook. Very interesting data but not sure the doctors care to see it. Some of the lengths of the CA's and OI's are scary. As long as 34 seconds. Should I still be alive?

Those numbers would be much worse without CPAP therapy.

Is your AHI dominated by the CA index? This is something I urge you to know so you can call your doctor's office and ask about it. Central apnea can be induced by CPAP therapy. Often it's an issue that subsides as you adapt, but you have spent enough time on the machines to allow it to subside.

So, if you still have an elevated CA index after all this time, that would be the reason for a titration with a ASV machine. Essentially that machine has to be adjusted so that it breathes for you when you don't do it for yourself. I would urge you to find this out and if you can't get an explanation from your doctor I'd get a second opinion.

Another thing you can do is get an oximeter so you'll know if your oxygen level is dropping during your apneas.

[DeepBreathing]

Original test results: AHI 69.0 RDI 75.9 OI 245 CA 9 HYP 28 MIXED 87 in 321 total minutes of sleep during study
Second test results: AHI 18.7 RDI 18.7 OI 12 CA 30 HYP 41 Mixed 0 in 266.5 total minutes of sleep during study

Thanks for posting this. I assume the second test was a titration where they hooked you up to a machine and tried different pressures? There's obviously a huge reduction in obstructive apneas though hypopneas have gone up a bit, which may just be that some of the obstructives were partly treated by the pressure. Centrals have gone up a bit, and mixed apneas have disappeared. My guess is that the pressure has suppressed the obstructive component of the mixed apneas, leaving the central apnea component in some cases.

Your HI needs to come down and that is normally achieved by increasing the exhale pressure (EPAP). Because you already had a lot of central and mixed apneas in the first test, my thought is that these are endemic and not caused by pressure. To overcome these remaining centrals, I really think you should at least have a trial on an ASV machine.

[Lost53]

Thanks to all for the info!