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No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
#1
No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
Hi,

A month ago i took a Sleeping test at the hospital, and the result said that i had 24AHI.
Last Week I got a CPAP Machine which tells me now that I have less Than 4 AHI per night. (Resmed S9 Auto)
Could you explain me what this means??
I have 2 theories:

1.-The number of AHI means that CPAP detected and solved the apneas episodes
2.-The number of AHI are the ones that CPAP could`t Solve

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#2
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
(06-24-2015, 06:50 PM)fabriziolag Wrote: Hi,

A month ago i took a Sleeping test at the hospital, and the result said that i had 24AHI.
Last Week I got a CPAP Machine which tells me now that I have less Than 4 AHI per night. (Resmed S9 Auto)
Could you explain me what this means??
I have 2 theories:

1.-The number of AHI means that CPAP detected and solved the apneas episodes
2.-The number of AHI are the ones that CPAP could`t Solve

The latter. But rather than "couldn't solve" I would say "couldn't solve at it's current settings for a particular sleep period".
Ed Seedhouse
VA7SDH

Part cow since February 2018.

Trust your mind less and your brain more.


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#3
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
For your CPAP, the AHI is the number of Apnea & Hypoapnea events per hour. It's a rate.
Total apnea events divided by time.
If you slept 8 hours and the machine scored an AHI of 4, then you had 32 events over the 8 hours of sleep.
(They could be clustered or spread out over the night.)
So, yes, they are apneas that occurred; and were detected, but not squelched (prevented) by the CPAP.
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#4
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
(06-24-2015, 06:50 PM)fabriziolag Wrote: A month ago i took a Sleeping test at the hospital, and the result said that i had 24AHI.

On average, you stop breathing 24 times an hour.

Quote:Last Week I got a CPAP Machine which tells me now that I have less Than 4 AHI per night. (Resmed S9 Auto)
Could you explain me what this means??

You stop breathing only about 4 times per hour. The number is now lower because the CPAP machine inflates the region of your throat known as the airway. Having this happen less than 5 times per hour is considered normal and means you are now able to get a much higher quality of sleep. If it hasn't happened already you should be feeling much better. You have significantly reduced your risk of heart disease and stroke, and should see an marked increase in the quality of your life.

Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#5
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
Hi fabriziolag, WELCOME! to the forum.!
Much success to you with your CPAP therapy and hang in there for more responses to your post.
trish6hundred
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#6
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
(06-24-2015, 06:50 PM)fabriziolag Wrote: ...1.-The number of AHI means that CPAP detected and solved the apneas episodes
2.-The number of AHI are the ones that CPAP could`t Solve...

Your AHI is a summary report indexed to per hour of all apneas that you actually experience (and are not prevented or "solved"). An AHI of 4 for someone who slept exactly 8 hours would mean that they had exactly 32 unprevented events, totaled, for that sleep session. That means that breathing was impaired about once every 15 minutes, on average.

So your AHI without xPAP is the number of events you had, indexed to a per hour number. AHI with xPAP is the same thing, except that with xPAP that number should be much lower than without it, because of the effectiveness of the therapy.

Rather than fix or "solve" apneas, CPAP prevents most apneas, but not all. It appears that you have an auto machine, or APAP, which can prevent even more apneas by automatically modifying the pressure. That is the common prescription these days.

A consistent number averaging under 5 is the goal, and is an indicator of you no longer having sleep apnea (with the mask, of course). So congrats on successful therapy.

Some types of apneas are not able to be dealt with by xPAP, which primarily deals with obstructive events (and it can't prevent all of those, either). If you have a preponderance of other types of events, such as centrals and hypops, in your sleep study, they normally prescribe a ventilator-type machine instead of conventional xPAP.
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#7
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
(06-24-2015, 06:50 PM)fabriziolag Wrote: Last Week I got a CPAP Machine which tells me now that I have less Than 4 AHI per night. (Resmed S9 Auto)

Which S9 Auto ... S9 AutoSet or S9 Escape Auto
[Image: s9-autoset-models.jpg]

Only the AutoSet detect central apnea, report leak and detailed data on the SD card
The machine flag events that did not successfully eliminate in time
There're number of possible reason for that
New to the therapy
Central apnea detected
Pressure settings are not optimal or/and minimum pressure too low
Large leaks (mask or/and mouth), mask is uncomfortable (not fitting correctly, wrong type or size)
Interrupted sleep and not enough hours of sleep

Sleep study lab pay no attention to events scored while awake, the machine flag them and that distort the picture somewhat





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#8
RE: No CPAP AHI vs AHI with CPAP
(06-24-2015, 06:50 PM)fabriziolag Wrote: Hi,

A month ago i took a Sleeping test at the hospital, and the result said that i had 24AHI.
Last Week I got a CPAP Machine which tells me now that I have less Than 4 AHI per night. (Resmed S9 Auto)
Could you explain me what this means??
I have 2 theories:

1.-The number of AHI means that CPAP detected and solved the apneas episodes
2.-The number of AHI are the ones that CPAP could`t Solve

Congratulations, you're cured.

Only slightly joking. How are you feeling? How are you sleeping?

AHI of 4 is the "severity" of your apnea even with CPAP. It doesn't always go to zero, and it's not usually worthwhile to try to make it zero. 4 is much better than 24. You might try to make it a little better, but wait until you've done it for a few weeks.

If you have the S9 AutoSet, you can get the free SleepyHead program and look at your results in detail, but it's not terribly necessary if things are working out well for you.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
Useful links.
Click here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
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