Apnea Duration

[notam2]

Hello again,

I suspected that my 80 year-old mother had sleep apnea based on her O2 sats (or specifically, her desats) from a pulse oximeter that she wore overnight, so I encouraged her to go in for an overnight sleep test to see if she has sleep apnea.  She did, and it turns out her AHI is 24.  She doesn't want to treat her moderate sleep apnea because she says that she sleeps fine and isn't reporting any excessive daytime sleepiness.  She's also horrible at reporting her own symptoms correctly.  However, she is reporting that she frequently gets a "wake up jolt".  One even happened during her sleep study and when I went to pick her up from her appointment to drive her home she asked if all the wires could have delivered her an electric shock to cause the jolt.  I asked the doc about it, and the doc showed us the video and said it was just an arousal after an apnea.  The doc showed us the video and it really didn't really show much other than my mom waking up -- kinda wonder if they found the right "jolt" that my mother was referring to.

Anyways, I got a copy of her sleep study and am reviewing the report.  One of the most concerning things that I'm wondering about is that her average apnea duration is 38 seconds, and her longest apnea is 84 seconds.  I didn't see the report before the follow-up appointment with the sleep doc, so I'm wondering how problematic these apnea durations are.  84 seconds seems like a LONG time, but is it long enough to make somebody pass out in her sleep?  Is that even possible?

The video they showed us of my mother's "jolt" wasn't the 84 second long apnea.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

[staceyburke]

Apnea is classified by how much of obstruction and duration (see my signature). A 90 second complete obstruction would be a concern but if the obstruction is less (50, 30, %) it might not be that much to worry about. Of course the point of pap therapy is to eliminate as many as possible.

[OpalRose]

Post your mom's sleep report here, redacted of any personal info.  
We might see something to better advise.

With regard to your mom not wanting to be treated, you could remind her that those "jolts" out of a sound sleep can be damaging to her heart.  "Untreated SA doesn't play nice and can aggravate any condition she might have already.

[notam2]

Apnea is classified by how much of obstruction and duration (see my signature).

I'll try to redact the sleep report, but in the meantime I can advise that they scored it as an 84 second long OA.  I'm assuming it was a full obstruction to be classified as an OA and not a hypopnea.

Its making me ask the question -- how long can someone hold their breath before they pass out?

[OpalRose]

With an Obstructive, she's still attempting to breathe.  On a graph, you would be able to see that... in other words, it wouldn't be a total flat line in the wave form as if it were a Clear Airway, where there is no attempt to breathe.

[notam2]

A copy of the redacted report is attached.  Like I mentioned earlier, it's not the AHI of 24 that has me overly concerned but rather I'm wondering about the fact that a lot of the apneic events are LONG, with the longest being 84 seconds.