apap resolving central events?

[sheepless]

does anyone have any idea by what mechanism(s) apap resolved much of my central apnea? 

following a 1987 polysomnography, I was diagnosed with mild to moderate central sleep apnea.  following a 2016 at-home sleep study, I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea even though I had nearly equal clear or central and obstructive events that night (72.7 ahi; 196 ca, 204 oa and a few hypopnea; low sao2 in low 70%s).  as I got older and heavier, oa crept up on me over the years, while ca is still a significant presence.  

apap helped a lot (but not enough & I'm now using an asv, but still curious about this), bringing my ahi down to about 5 or 6 with fewer residual events of all types.     

cpap, apap aren't supposed to be capable of handling ca, so how, why did apap reduce my ca about as much as my oa? it doesn't seem likely that both a psg and an at-home test could have mis-identified that many ca events.

my sleep doc at that time couldn't or wouldn't explain this.  

has anyone had a similar experience?

[Walla Walla]

No clue. I would guess that the reduction in obstructive events improved your blood oxygen levels enough to help. Maybe an external source of oxygen would do the same thing. I don't think the oxygen is a cure but it could be a lack of oxygen causes the clear apnea condition to become worse. Than again maybe not.

[sheepless]

I haven't learned the mechanics of breathing but that sounds reasonable WW.

OTOH, while it's been too many years to mean much, in 1987 or 1988 I did a second overnight in the sleep lab with O2 blown up my nose to no effect. diamox over several months had no effect either.

I have a vague sense that the answer to this might be important to the art and science of titration. OTOH, if that was true you'd think the literature would reflect that.