Sleep study mostly Hypopneas?

[stevemjc]

I recently found my original sleep study report.

The results were 1 OA, 8 RERAs, 71 hypopneas and zero CA. 

At the time I didn't know enough to ask the doctor what this means and my next appointment is not till next year. 

What exactly do those numbers mean?  I thought sleep apnea was the OA/CA events. 

I was diagnosed and issued a CPAP.

Thanks for any and all assistance.

[Gideon]

OA, RERAs, and (most) hypopneas are considered Obstructive,
There is a thing called Central Hypopnea but most sleep studies do not differentiate between obstructive and central hypopneas, so "all" hypopneas are (incorrectly) cobsidered obstructive.
RERAs, Respiratory Effort Related Arousal, is a series of Flow Limitations that ends with arousal, Ahhh, another new term, Flow Limits, as your machine detects them are breaths that have a lesser flow rate than Apnea or Hypopnea.

[stevemjc]

OA, RERAs, and (most) hypopneas are considered Obstructive,
There is a thing called Central Hypopnea but most sleep studies do not differentiate between obstructive and central hypopneas, so "all" hypopneas are (incorrectly) cobsidered obstructive.
RERAs, Respiratory Effort Related Arousal, is a series of Flow Limitations that ends with arousal,   Ahhh, another new term, Flow Limits, as your machine detects them are breaths that have a lesser flow rate than Apnea or Hypopnea.

Thanks. 

So my 71 hypopneas are considered obstructive, just labeled differently by the sleep lab?

[Sleeprider]

Hypopnea is usually scored when the flow rate drops to 30 to 50% of normal and an oxygen desaturation of 3% or more is detected. If we assume you slept for a generous 7-hours your AHI would have been 72/7= 7.28. Your RDI would be the sum of RERA+OA+H/hours. That certainly points to a valid need for CPAP, and people with mainly hypopnea and RERA nearly always display considerable flow limitation, which is treated better with the exhale pressure relief (EPR) feature on your Resmed. Feel free to post a chart or two and we can pretty quickly identify that if you want.

[DeepBreathing]

An easier way to think of it is that an apnea is a total blockage of airflow. An hypopnea is a significant but not complete blockage. In both cases it's enough to cause arousal, robbing you of sleep and flooding your system with adrenaline.

I suggest you download the free software Oscar, which will allow you to see these events on a breath-by-breath basis, along with a whole lot of other data. You can use the data to optimise your settings with help from the forum, or alternatively use it to inform your discussions with your clinician.

Get Oscar here: https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

Oscar Help: http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...OSCAR_Help

How to organise your Oscar charts: http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ganization

How to post charts to the forum: http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...pnea_Board

[Sleeprider]

This thread was split. The question posed by Jerry1967 started a branch of this thread where his question was being replied to, rather than Stevemjc. The split thread can be seen here: http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...a-and-RERA