Obstructive Readings ?

[berniw]

Using ResMed AutoSense 10.


Please could somebody advise me as to the reading for AHI with ResScan or SleepyHead. Where the reading is Obstructive, Central etc do these readings mean I still have obstructive events with CPAP ?, or are they sensing what would be an obstructive event ?.

My reading for last night was really low 1.2 in fact, but the night before was 4.1 (obstructive).

Would I just return to very high events without the CPAP even though they are now low ?.


Thanks in advance.

[saltydawg2]

Sorry, you probably will always have events, of some sort. This therapy is not really like putting ice on a sprain to make it less painful until it is all better. My initial study showed over 30 apneas,( mostly obstructive). Treated, I still struggled to get AHI below 12. Now, it is 5, or below, with the largest factor now being Clear Airway. Working on that with information from the guys on this site. They will be along, shortly. I just have to get up really early to go to work. Good luck!

[DeepBreathing]

G'day Berniw, welcome to Apnea Board.

The numbers reported by ResScan or SleepyHead are the same as recorded by your machine. They represent what you actually experienced on that night. So yes, you will always have some events while using CPAP, just much much less than you would without it. An AHI below 5 is regarded as satisfactory, so your scores (especially the 1.2) are good. But don't get too hung up on the numbers - the main thing is how you feel. It might take a while to kick in, but typically you should feel more refreshed after a sleep, without that horrible morning headache, and not be prone to falling asleep at the wheel or at meetings with the boss! You may also notice fewer trips to the toilet during the night.

If you stop using the machine, you'll experience the same degree of apnea as you had previously - it's a treatment, not a cure (unfortunately).

[BigEars]

Using ResMed AutoSense 10.


Please could somebody advise me as to the reading for AHI with ResScan or SleepyHead. Where the reading is Obstructive, Central etc do these readings mean I still have obstructive events with CPAP ?, or are they sensing what would be an obstructive event ?.

My reading for last night was really low 1.2 in fact, but the night before was 4.1 (obstructive).

Would I just return to very high events without the CPAP even though they are now low ?.


Thanks in advance.

Your treatment will prevent most of the events which would have occurred without it. Any AHI below 5 is good. After a week or so you'll get used to using the machine and to feeling the benefits of treatment. Look back at your old Epworth sleep scale to see how you've improved.

[Moriarty]

Hi berniw - Welcome to the forum.

Its hard to improve on what DeepBreathing wrote except to add that pretty well everybody has and event (OA, CA, or Hypopnea) a few times a night.

It is when those events get up in to the some tens of events an hour that the person is diagnosed with some type of sleep disordered breathing.

As Paul said - CPAP is a therapy not a cure... although after some 900 nights on CPAP I actually can't get to sleep without it (Except during the sermon at church )

[Terry]

Please could somebody advise me as to the reading for AHI with ResScan or SleepyHead. Where the reading is Obstructive, Central etc do these readings mean I still have obstructive events with CPAP ?, or are they sensing what would be an obstructive event ?.

My reading for last night was really low 1.2 in fact, but the night before was 4.1 (obstructive).

Would I just return to very high events without the CPAP even though they are now low ?.

The readings are usually correct. If it says you have an OA or a CA, you almost certainly did.

That said, you aren't doomed. 8-)

Your readings improve as your pressure settings are adjusted. However you might need to push your doc a little or learn how to do it yourself.

The OAs are fixed with increased pressure, which will keep your airway open. When your minimum pressure is high enough to stop the OAs, they'll stop. 8-)

The CAs sometimes go away by themselves, but if not, can be fixed with a machine that knows how to handle them.

You can get your readings to be as good as you're willing to work for/demand/tolerate.

While the auto machines (not sure if yours is auto) will try to stop the apneas, if the minimum pressure is too low, they are unwilling to ramp it up fast enough to stop all apneas because they don't want to wake you up. Also, if the upper limit is too low, they are unable to generate enough pressure to stop all the apneas.

That said, you'll probably never consistently get "0"s, although you should be able to consistently get less than 1.

Terry

[trish6hundred]

Hi berniw,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Hang in there for more responses to your post and much success to you with your CPAP therapy.

[TyroneShoes]

...you'll probably never consistently get "0"s, although you should be able to consistently get less than 1.
...

If so, then maybe we should take a poll, because it seems that while most folks eventually consistently get under 5, many never consistently get under 2, and the vast majority never get consistently under one. That may be an unrealistic goal, and for very sound reasons. I have also ever only seen one post crowing about a zero.

If we look at what the therapy of CPAP (in its basic permutations) is supposed to do, it is to treat obstructive events. It reports centrals and hypops, but does little if anything to respond to them or to treat them. So if you have a few of those, which is apparently what normal people (non-sufferers) experience (assuming the centrals are not actually induced by the therapy) CPAP will not really make them go away.

That is not a knock on CPAP therapy at all; it may not be a cure, but the treatment can be fine-tuned to be 100% effective for most patients. It does just exactly what it is supposed to do, and not much more than that; keep the airway open and return respiration to virtually what is considered normal.

So I think one thing to take away from this is that respiration is not perfect for anyone, even for a perfect human specimen. Not every single breath is perfect and appears to have a classic perfect waveform on the graph. Since CPAP only treats some sorts of events, there will still be untreated events, even after the CPAP basically gets the airway open, and as far as AHI is concerned, they all still count.

The reason OSA is not considered an absolute condition is also reflected in the fact that they draw a line on a sliding scale defining what is OSA and what isn't, rather than defining it as an absolute condition; if you are under 5 events per hour, that is considered normal, which is what people not diagnosed with OSA experience normally. Many considered technically to be non-sufferers are then not even consistently under one.

So if you start life without OSA and are normal (have no significant obstructive issues) and have an AHI of ~5, and then develop the condition and have an AHI of 5-100, and then get xPAP treatment and it goes back to ~5, it seems that going to under 1 consistently would not really ever be expected.

[PaytonA]

I have also ever only seen one post crowing about a zero.

The goal should be to get AHI under 5 and maybe do a little tinkering to get it far enough below 5 to have a little margin for the occasional bad night. There are people on the board who can not get below 5 due to other interfering factors like severe aerophagia. They get the AHI as low as they can and still keep the aerophagia under control and roll with it.

With all of that said I got a 0 AHI once. I have not been beating myself up to repeat it. We do have a newbie who is getting some 0 AHI nights within several weeks of starting CPAP. We also have an Oldbie who gets 0 AHI nights several times per week.

Results vary a lot and just like many aspects of CPAP the goal is very individual. The general goals are to control apnea events and feel better.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

[berniw]

Thank you so much guys, this has really helped me. I have had the instruction to lose weight, however at 5'7" and 14 stone I do not feel that I am totally worlds away from a decent weight.

I asked the question from my consultant "will this stop the Apnea" but he could not give me a straight answer. I suppose it depends on my personal situation for the OSA, which at this stage he can not decide. I suppose it's wait and see, I go back in MARCH for a review and have to take my CPAP with me. My wife say's that if they take the machine back she will not be happy, she is also catching up on her sleep now, she is liking the quietness (no extreme loud snoring).

I feel better already and it's good to know that there is a group of people on here willing to assist with newbie questions, thanks again you really are a help.