Hi! I have a CPAP machine, but do I need it? Sleep study attached

[Grazi]

       

Hi All,
I've spend a while reading through a lot of the threads here, there sure seems to be a lot of knowledge!

I was recently diagnosed with "mild sleep apnea."

This was after an overnight sleep study done at a sleep lab.

I then spent another night there for a "titration" and to set up my cpap machine.

I got the machine (ResMed 10) and have been using it for a few weeks, but then I went and took another look at my sleep study data.

Here's my sleep study data.  Does it look like I really need to be on a CPAP machine? I'm not sure what all the numbers mean, but it appears to me that my blood oxygen level is above 90% almost always (99.7% of the time?).  Do my AHI numbers seem high?  Anything else?

[Grazi]

I have 3 more pages, but can't post them??

[Grazi]

I guess I need 4 posts first.

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So hopefully these count!

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one more

[Walla Walla]

Welcome to Apnea Board. What the sleep study Summary doesn't say is how long your oxygen rate were at or below 88%.

It does say you had 27 events during REM. I'd guess that yes you'll benefit from CPAP. It would really help if you could post a chart from sleepyhead. The links for downloading and posting are below. Until you have more than 4 posts you'll need to post the address for the chart by putting a break in the address. Example would be ht tp://.

Also what pressures are you using now and what PHI are you getting?

[Grazi]

Thanks. I think I only need a couple more posts and I can link to all 5 pages of my sleep study.

[Grazi]

https://imgur.com/G7fmvAs
https://imgur.com/yqgapl5
https://imgur.com/mXcoqYZ



<Moderator action: Links fixed>

[Walla Walla]

So what pressures are your machine set at and what's your AHI been?

[Grazi]

I'll sheepishly admit I don't know what pressures the machine is set at.
I think they set it at prescribed pressures before sending it to me.
I can try and check when I get home tonight.
It says my "Events per hour (AHI)" has ranged between a low of 1.3 and a high of 4 over the past 2 weeks.

[Walla Walla]

Well if your getting an AHI as high as 4 with the CPAP treatment that pretty much says you need it.

[Sleeprider]

Here are your last 3-images:







You have mild sleep apnea, that is higher in REM sleep (9.2/hour) than in other sleep stages (2.5 overall). You seem to have a much higher RDI which CPAP can help. You also have periodic leg movements which is disruptive to sleep at a rate of 15/hour, which disrupts your sleep less than once per hour (0.8).  Sleep tests are far from perfect, and the clinical environment can make it difficult to sleep and you may have a better or worse event rate at home, and from day to day.

You are the best judge of whether this leaves you feeling tired or dysfunctional in any way.  The fact you have some heart arrhythmia is something you should monitor as obstructive sleep apnea can contribute to a risk for A-fib.  So treatment may help prevent that problem from becoming worse, and help with your sleep quality.  Therapy may also disrupt your sleep due to the pressure, wearing a mask, leaks and other therapy related disruptions.  It's a hard call and you're on the borderline for medical necessity.  If you give it a fair chance, you can judge if you're feeling better.