Flow Limitation Numbers

[ppowers]

Hi All, doing good with downloading my data into SH.
I had a question about flow limitation. If you see the numbers start trending downwards, might that mean that you may be improving?
Also, if you have congestion in your nose causing decreased airflow through it, would THAT reflect as flow limitation? Good question? I hope so. Lastly, what would be a good number for flow limitation?
And oh yes, would people who don't have SDB have any of this limitation?
Thanks for listening

[quiescence at last]

Congestion in nose, sinus passages, etc. does contribute to flow limitations. Partially chewed food contributes, too - for me it happened a lot before CPAP treatment cleared my nasal passages. As a mouth breather, I was always having to decide between breathing and eating/swallowing. Trading off was the difficult part.

Yes, even someone who has not developed sleep apnea could have sleep disruptions due to excessive flow limitations. Not all of our problems are caused by ceasing breathing, hypoxia. So, an non-apnea sufferer may still have a sleep disorder, and that could cause some of the symptoms like sleepiness, lack of concentration, stress complications.

QAL

[justMongo]

flow limitation is a scoring of the inhalation waveform. Rounded tops indicate good flow; flattened or ragged tops indicate flow limitation.
It is a precursor for OSA -- and the auto machines raise pressure in response to flow limitation.

The scale of zero to one is somewhat arbitrary. A good number would be zero.
However, APAPs use flow limitation to up pressure to aid in averting an OSA event.