(04-03-2016, 06:35 PM)Ed1101 Wrote: I understand that higher is worse. How high would one expect it go if no air is flowing and what is the meaning of the "flat tops" on the flow rate graph? I do not understand the scale on the flow limitation chart.
Thanks for the explanation Vsheline, but I do not see a positive and negative on the flow limitation graph only what appears to be positive?
your "no air is flowing" is not applicable to flow limitations.
look at the tops of the airflow when the flow limitation graph is high, and compare that to the tops of the airflow when the flow limitation graph is low.
normal breath inhalation is a smooth humped curve, when the airway narrows and there is
flow limitation then the tops of the curve is chopped off to a varying degree, the more it's flattened, the worse the flow limitation is.
instead of my trying to post a tiny subset here, go to 'images.google.com' and searching for 'flow limitation' and you'll see plenty of examples, as well as what to look for in your flow graph.
(04-03-2016, 07:47 PM)green wings Wrote: My understanding is that flow limitation indicates that there's resistance in the airway that isn't severe enough to cause an apnea or hypopnea. Not sure that's correct.
that's not correct, you can have flow limitations all night long without an apnea or a hypopnea...
flow limitations do make it harder to breath, and thus require more effort and can cause sleep disruption because of that.