Hello Guest, Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.

or Create an Account


New Posts   Today's Posts

[Treatment] Flow Limitation and swallowing air
#1
Flow Limitation and swallowing air
Hello all you Experienced people,

I need help again I'm afraid! After about 4 months with the S9 Autoset I am doing pretty well but I do have a couple of problems which continue to dog me and I can't get any clear view of why I have the problems or if I can do anything about them. Any advice would be welcome.

1. I now manage to get through the night OK and for the most part I get AHI scores of between 2 and 5 (with a few under 2 and a few over 5) though if I wake in the night and lie quietly for more than a few minutes before going back to sleep then the AHI goes shooting up. I have pretty low leakage in general but often my AHI goes up to 10 or 12 for 30 to 60 minutes. There is no significant leakage and the sleepyhead and Resscan software both show little of no Apnea activity during the period: they do however show a lot of "Flow Limitation" over that period. Any ideas why this is so and what can I do about it please? Flow limitation seems a bit difficult to grasp, for me anyway!

2 The second problem is that I wake most mornings absolutely blown up with air which, unless I can discharge it by burping soon after getting up causes me severe discomfort and chest pain throughout the day. I have tried sleeping with a higher pillow (not much improvement) and Gaviscon is of limited usefulness. Seems a minor problem which the doctors don't seem to take seriously, but it is pretty difficult to cope with all day every day to the extent that I wonder if it isn't worse than the S[/b][/size][/font]leep Apnea. I feel sure others must have to cope with this problem so any advice would be more than welcome - I am certainly not getting much from the medical world.

I look forward to all your collective wisdom which over the last few months has been my main prop.

Thanks.

Brian

Post Reply Post Reply
#2
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
Hang in there. I have no experience to help you with but there are plenty of people on the board that do and I am sure you will be getting plenty of help.

PaytonA

Admin Note:
PaytonA passed away in September 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
Post Reply Post Reply
#3
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
(04-05-2014, 11:13 AM)PaytonA Wrote: Hang in there. I have no experience to help you with but there are plenty of people on the board that do and I am sure you will be getting plenty of help.

PaytonA

Hi PaytonA

Thanks for the encouragement. Always good to have support, particularly from the other side of the world. The internet is wonderful and ApneaBoard is brilliant.

Have a nice day!!!

Regards

Brian
Post Reply Post Reply
#4
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
(04-05-2014, 10:47 AM)Brian Rule Wrote: 1. if I wake in the night and lie quietly for more than a few minutes before going back to sleep then the AHI goes shooting up. I have pretty low leakage in general but often my AHI goes up to 10 or 12 for 30 to 60 minutes. There is no significant leakage and the sleepyhead and Resscan software both show little of no Apnea activity during the period:

I'm a bit confused: Your ahi goes up to 10 or 12, yet the software shows little or no activity? What are you looking at to know your ahi is increasing?

(04-05-2014, 10:47 AM)Brian Rule Wrote: 2 The second problem is that I wake most mornings absolutely blown up with air which, unless I can discharge it by burping soon after getting up causes me severe discomfort and chest pain throughout the day. I have tried sleeping with a higher pillow (not much improvement) and Gaviscon is of limited usefulness. Seems a minor problem which the doctors don't seem to take seriously, but it is pretty difficult to cope with all day every day to the extent that I wonder if it isn't worse than the S[/b][/size][/font]leep Apnea. I feel sure others must have to cope with this problem so any advice would be more than welcome - I am certainly not getting much from the medical world.

That's generally from air in your mouth being swallowed rather than expelled through your lips. In other words, you're mouth breathing. You may need to use a chinstrap or other technique to help train your mouth to keep shut. I use my wife for that purpose.
Post Reply Post Reply
#5
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
(04-05-2014, 11:32 AM)retired_guy Wrote:
(04-05-2014, 10:47 AM)Brian Rule Wrote: 1. if I wake in the night and lie quietly for more than a few minutes before going back to sleep then the AHI goes shooting up. I have pretty low leakage in general but often my AHI goes up to 10 or 12 for 30 to 60 minutes. There is no significant leakage and the sleepyhead and Resscan software both show little of no Apnea activity during the period:

I'm a bit confused: Your ahi goes up to 10 or 12, yet the software shows little or no activity? What are you looking at to know your ahi is increasing?

(04-05-2014, 10:47 AM)Brian Rule Wrote: 2 The second problem is that I wake most mornings absolutely blown up with air which, unless I can discharge it by burping soon after getting up causes me severe discomfort and chest pain throughout the day. I have tried sleeping with a higher pillow (not much improvement) and Gaviscon is of limited usefulness. Seems a minor problem which the doctors don't seem to take seriously, but it is pretty difficult to cope with all day every day to the extent that I wonder if it isn't worse than the S[/b][/size][/font]leep Apnea. I feel sure others must have to cope with this problem so any advice would be more than welcome - I am certainly not getting much from the medical world.

That's generally from air in your mouth being swallowed rather than expelled through your lips. In other words, you're mouth breathing. You may need to use a chinstrap or other technique to help train your mouth to keep shut. I use my wife for that purpose.

Hi Retired Guy

I am looking at the graphs on both lots of software. The section which indicates what kind of events you have had is completely clear while the AHI graph by time shows the graph rising to 10or12 and staying there for quite a while. Hope that is a bit clearer.

Brian
Post Reply Post Reply
#6
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
There are two graphs of which you speak. There are the events. And there is the AHI graph. The second is of little use unless you understand the concept behind what the AHI graph shows. The graph shows the mathematical integral of the number of apnea event with respect to time divided by the total time. I'll see if I can cast it into an equation...

[Image: Slide1.jpg]

Flow limitation is a scoring of the inhalation waveform. If the waveform has a rounded shape, it scores low limitation. If it is flat on top, it scores higher flow limitation. It's an indication that OSA is possible. I wouldn't get too wrapped up in that graph; the scoring is somewhat subjective.
Admin Note:
JustMongo passed away in August 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
Post Reply Post Reply
#7
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
Events while awake are meaningless and discarded for true AHI value

Flow limitation (FL) are minor obstruction events, don,t meet the 10 seconds or more criteria to be scored as an apnea.
The machine raise pressure in response to FL, whats pressure stats med, 95p, max


Bloating discomfort is called aerophagia, something you need see the doc to see whether CPAP related or GERD or bit of both

Two different conditions with different approaches, increase pressure to deal with FL and decrease pressure to deal with aerophagia
(chicken and egg syndrome)

Some people find bilevel machine helps with aerophagia, higher pressure when breathe-in and much lower pressure (comfortable) when breathe-out

Post Reply Post Reply
#8
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
(04-05-2014, 10:47 AM)Brian Rule Wrote: I wake most mornings absolutely blown up with air
There is an extensive thread entitled "Aerophagia" that may contain some useful information for you.
Post Reply Post Reply
#9
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
(04-05-2014, 02:15 PM)justMongo Wrote: There are two graphs of which you speak. There are the events. And there is the AHI graph. The second is of little use unless you understand the concept behind what the AHI graph shows. The graph shows the mathematical integral of the number of apnea event with respect to time divided by the total time. I'll see if I can cast it into an equation...

[Image: Slide1.jpg]

Flow limitation is a scoring of the inhalation waveform. If the waveform has a rounded shape, it scores low limitation. If it is flat on top, it scores higher flow limitation. It's an indication that OSA is possible. I wouldn't get too wrapped up in that graph; the scoring is somewhat subjective.
Hi justMongo

Thanks for the bit of calculus, with which, as a fellow engineer, I do empathise. However I'm not sure it gets me much further forward with doing anything to improve the situation and as you say maybe flow limitation is best left alone.

Thanks for the help anyway.

Regards

Brian
Post Reply Post Reply
#10
RE: Flow Limitation and swallowing air
(04-05-2014, 03:03 PM)zonk Wrote: Events while awake are meaningless and discarded for true AHI value

Flow limitation (FL) are minor obstruction events, don,t meet the 10 seconds or more criteria to be scored as an apnea.
The machine raise pressure in response to FL, whats pressure stats med, 95p, max


Bloating discomfort is called aerophagia, something you need see the doc to see whether CPAP related or GERD or bit of both

Two different conditions with different approaches, increase pressure to deal with FL and decrease pressure to deal with aerophagia
(chicken and egg syndrome)

Some people find bilevel machine helps with aerophagia, higher pressure when breathe-in and much lower pressure (comfortable) when breathe-out

Hi Again Zonk

I am just getting to know a bit more about Flow limitation and it seems a bit academic to me. As far as I can understand flat topped is bad and round topped is good (but I don't understand the significance of tall and short yet - I guess tall is bad and short or none is good?). All of my Flow limitation seems to be flat topped whether it's tall or short - but it seems I can't do much about it anyway! - or have I got that wrong?

Regards

Brian

Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Fixed mask leak, but flow limit seems to be increasing AHI emile.leplattenier 0 7 4 minutes ago
Last Post: emile.leplattenier
  relationship to flow rate and leaks sleepingbetterinFl 0 15 58 minutes ago
Last Post: sleepingbetterinFl
  What is that spike in Flow limit? urachan 7 448 03-16-2024, 05:17 PM
Last Post: urachan
  Awoken by air flow? ReclaimingMySleep 5 141 03-16-2024, 04:59 PM
Last Post: ReclaimingMySleep
  Help with spotting flow rate RERA's apnea505 3 140 03-14-2024, 02:57 PM
Last Post: apnea505
  OSCAR flow rate assessment -- mouth leaks, palatal prolapse? manders513 8 130 03-14-2024, 01:15 PM
Last Post: BoxcarPete
Question Flow LIMIT data missing tried to search forum Plmnb 16 233 03-10-2024, 01:10 PM
Last Post: Plmnb


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

Apnea Board is an educational web site designed to empower Sleep Apnea patients.