Question About Flow Limitations

[upsman]

I've been wondering how the importance of flow limitations is determined. Is it the frequency, or the duration, or both? 
Looking at this recent OSCAR data, do I have anything to be concerned about with my flow limitations. 

Note that I do have COPD and every night my apnea is central with hypopneas but is always less than 1 AHI. 

   

[Gideon]

Flow limits are what is driving your pressure up. Your numbers say that changes should be driven by how you feel.

There is no 'need' to alter EPR but I would try EPR =2. And I'd expect you to feel better. Tin addition to that I'd expect your. Pressures to decrease due to reduced flow limits and I expect the slight increase in PS could benefit your COPD by somewhat easing your breathing effort.

Determine which feels better, EPR=1 or EPR=2

[staceyburke]

Flow limitations are smaller apnea events. At the bottom of the post is how apnea are classified  they are categorized by amount of obstruction and length of time in the event. You can put your mouse on the timed event and the # in the () are the seconds the event lasted. 

FL are disruptive to sleep and may wake you up or stop you from deep sleep. Really you need to decide if these are a problem by how you feel on your therapy. For some FL are not a problem and for others just can’t feel rested with them.

[upsman]

Thanks Gideon.

At one point I did have EPR set to 2, but in an effort to lower my (minimal) central events I did lower it to 1. It was more of an experiment and didn't seem to have much effect on my overall events, but I left it at 1 cm.
I'll give that a shot.

[RadarRalfs]

Following this post.  I too am learning about Flow Limits and EPR.