RE: Help understanding DATA
That's fine. EPR is a comfort feature, and most people can feel the lower pressure on exhale. If it makes no difference to you , then any setting, including off is fine. Basically, what we're saying is EPAP pressure controls OA. Increasing pressure beyond that can help with things like hypopnea, flow limitations and snores. That is the general sequence that things resolve with pressure under fixed or bilevel schemes.
RE: Help understanding DATA
Hey guys,
This is the report for last night. Any feedback is welcome!
https://imgur.com/a/BsiVJ
Thanks,
Diego
PD: I don't know why but forum says I've reached my attachment quota, so it won't let me post images directly....
RE: Help understanding DATA
The higher minimum pressure and lower EPR has produced positive results for you. This is completely acceptable in terms of therapy. Your AHI is greatly improved, your pressure fluctuations are much less, and your therapy is much more continuous and longer. There a substantially fewer snores and flow limitations. Leaks are essentially unchanged, as well as most respiratory parameters.
I guess at this point, we just have to ask how do you feel? What would you like to see change, or stay the same moving forward?
RE: Help understanding DATA
I feel good, but on the other hand I have never felt so tired as my initial Sleep Apnea diagnosis said I should feel. I originally had 95 AHI. What did happen is that I used to go 3-4 times to pee at night and that has been reduced to 1. I do feel that I still wake up a few times, but don't have any trouble getting to sleep again. I would like not to have OA events, but I understand that is very unlikely to achieve.
01-17-2017, 11:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2017, 11:05 AM by Sleeprider.)
RE: Help understanding DATA
I suspect, you will settle out with 1-2 AHI and occasional nights less than 1. The challenge at this point is minimizing sleep disruption and becoming as comfortable as possible. You have seen a steady reduction in events as pressure increased. You might consider using increments of 0.4 in minimum pressure and see if that takes you closer to the goal. If EPR made a big difference to you, you might also try adding that back slowly, along with adding minimum pressure.
RE: Help understanding DATA
(01-17-2017, 11:05 AM)Sleeprider Wrote: I suspect, you will settle out with 1-2 AHI and occasional nights less than 1. The challenge at this point is minimizing sleep disruption and becoming as comfortable as possible. You have seen a steady reduction in events as pressure increased. You might consider using increments of 0.4 in minimum pressure and see if that takes you closer to the goal. If EPR made a big difference to you, you might also try adding that back slowly, along with adding minimum pressure.
Thanks SleepRider, I'll do the adjustments and I'll let you know how it goes...
RE: Help understanding DATA
dcampo only going to the bathroom once a night is a good sign your therapy is working. Here is a little article from sleepapnea.com explaining why.
The frequent need to urinate at night is called nocturia. According to the National Sleep Foundation, nocturia is a common cause of sleep loss, especially among older adults. One NSF poll found 65 percent of adults between the ages of 55 and 84 reported experiencing the need to go to the bathroom several times a night at least a few nights per week.
“Many patients with sleep apnea have been placed on medications that fail to work for their nighttime urination because the actual cause, sleep apnea, is not recognized,” said Dr. Robert S. Rosenberg, a pulmonologist and medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Prescott Valley and Flagstaff, Arizona. “Sleep apnea triggers the frequent urination.”
When a person has untreated obstructive sleep apnea, he noted, “they make vigorous efforts to breathe against a closed airway while sleeping. This results in large negative pressures in the chest cavity.”
That pressure leads to the production of the hormone atrial natriuretic peptide, which induces the frequent need to urinate.
“Frequent” is defined as two or more times a night. “Patients with severe nocturia may get up five or six times to go to the bathroom,” Rosenberg said. And the disturbance in sleep is one cause of daytime sleepiness and fatigue associated with OSA.
Sleep apnea is commonly treated with continuous positive air pressure, or CPAP. And in many cases, Rosenberg said, getting control over OSA can reduce the number of nighttime trips to the bathroom.
Happy to see things are moving in the right direction for you, hope you continue to see even more improvement in how you feel.