Night 8, it's already Love - Hate. So glad I found you guys!

[Crimson Nape]

Question: Why does Sleepyhead report hypopneas, "OA"s and "UA"s, and not "CA"s?  How do I explain that to the doc?

Look on the lower left of the Daily Graph screen, in the Flags box, and see if CA has a green mark to its left.

[jaswilliams]

The ST and an ASV machine does not report CA’s as they are considered treated by the machine, your issue here is the ST does not provide enough pressure support on a breath by breath basis to adequately ventilate you., the ASV can give upto 25cm of ipap/boost (pressure support) to make you breath. Your ST machine under its current configuration can only give a maximum ipap of 11.6 which is insufficient to cause you to take a full breath hence the Hypopnoeas

[FE350]

Thanks Crimson Nape.  Yes, all 5 of the available event flags are green and showing on the charts.  But there is never a report of a CA, only UA's, OA's (of which I do not have any), and H's.

[FE350]

Thanks Jas.

[FE350]

Hey Gang,
Please take a look at this zoom in from my results last night.  I feel like I also stop breathing during the daytime.  Someone from the FB Sleep Apnea group suggested that is a symptom of Cheyne-Stokes Syndrome.  I feel that my wave form did not precisely match the increasing, then decreasing crescendo of S-T, nor the speeding breathing.  If anything, I feel my breathing slows and then eventually stops.  Apparently I snap out of it, breathe several times, then my breathing gets shallow again, before finally stopping again.  The chart will tell you a lot about how I (don't) breathe.  Your thoughts?

[FE350]

Look at this beautiful breathing technique 

[pholynyk]

That's a beautiful triangle wave shape, but it's not C-S breathing. C-S breathing shows a more sinusoidal wave shape. I'm sure someone will come along with the sample C-S wave shape. It shows a gradual increase and then gradual decrease, repeating over and over.
I don't know what your breathing pattern indicates, but it doesn't look comfortable.

[Sleeprider]

I have acquired a library of flow rates typical of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration, but first, why your example is not.  What you are showing in that sequence is a pattern of increasing flow limitation followed by abrupt recovery breathing.  Both the UA and H events are identical, and the only difference is the amount of flow reduction which determines how it is flagged.  Once again, ASV would have increased EPAP pressure during this episode to clear obstruction, and also applied much higher pressure support to facilitate a complete breath.  FWIW, don't believe everything you read on  Facebook; this looks mostly obstructive to me, and may be positional.

Typically CSR looks like this and may be flagged obstructive or central depending on conditions in the airway.

[FE350]

Hey thanks Sleeprider. I didn’t think I am Cheyne Stokes, so glad to have your feedback. 

But something you said concerns me. You said “FWIW, ...this looks mostly obstructive to me”. If so, then I wouldn’t be Central. But I can add, I’m not overweight, seldom snore, and when I’m falling asleep, I’ve come to realize that my breathing gets very shallow, before simply stopping altogether. My airway is wide open. I basically relax myself to death. That’s what it feels like. I’m still believing my issue is Central. 

BTW, in 27 days using the machine now, it has yet to record an OA. Not 1. All UA or H. This concerns me greatly, because I’m on the hunt for approval for an ASV. If I’m not Central, then why would I need an ASV?

Your thoughts?

[DeepBreathing]

I don't think your machine has central apnea detection. From the clinician manual:

Central sleep apnea detection
Central sleep apnea detection is available in VAuto, CPAP and S modes (when Easy-Breathe is enabled) on AirCurve 10 VAuto and AirCurve 10 S devices.

No mention of the 10 ST having central apnea detection, which is consistent with the ASV. These machines don't waste time trying to decide what type of apnea it is, they just flag them as UAs then get on and treat them. The problem is that while the ASV is specifically designed to treat central, the ST is not.

Don't worry about using your machine to prove you have central apnea - your original sleep test (way back at the start of this thread) has proved that beyond doubt. There is really only one solution for somebody who had 100% central apnea on a diagnostic test, and that is an ASV.