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

Is it Normal For Oxygen to Drop with Heart Rate Increase?
#11
RE: Is it Normal For Oxygen to Drop with Heart Rate Increase?
Hi Tim,

As others have said here the usual thing is that when the SpO2 drops the heart beats faster to get more O2 to where it is needed. At the same time you start to breath deeper and the lungs get more O2 into the blood. This then establishes a new equilibrium heart rate until the O2 demand changes again either up or down...

The thing that I notice though is that you mentioned a heart rate of 50 - 55 with your BP meter not able to give you a BP reading. In my case that is caused by an irregular heart beat confusing both the BP meter and the pulse count on the oximeter. I suggest that you look carefully at the Pleth graph on the Oximeter (google plethysmograph) to see if your heart beat is a nice even rate or if there is an odd missing pulse. When my heart is well into its Ectopic nonsense my resting 'apparent' heart rate on the Oximeter drops to the mid 50's when it usually is mid 60's. My SpO2 during wakeful resting is in the 96 to 99 range regardless of whether my heart is 'skipping' or not.

The doc tells me the Ectopic beats are nothing to worry about and is more of a nusiance than a problem, but I am finding it a bit uncomfortable so I am having some investigations done.

DISCLAIMER - I am not a doctor so seek your own professional advice in addition to whatever you read here.
Post Reply Post Reply
#12
RE: Is it Normal For Oxygen to Drop with Heart Rate Increase?
Thank you, I appreciate all the replies and information. I experimented with some of my "As Needed" meds and see that they can cause fluctuations in the results also.

"I suggest that you look carefully at the Pleth graph on the Oximeter (google plethysmograph) to see if your heart beat is a nice even rate or if there is an odd missing pulse."

I have watched this continually at times but seems to be steady right along. I can't seem to get myself accurately in sync with SleepyHead for some reason. Others have shared how to do it in other posts but I am not getting it right for some reason.
Tim
Finger Lakes Region, NY
Post Reply Post Reply
#13
RE: Is it Normal For Oxygen to Drop with Heart Rate Increase?
(11-09-2012, 04:32 PM)PaulaO2 Wrote: It would make sense that the heart would appear to react first rather than the O2. It takes a few seconds or so for the O2 to be reflected in the reading.

Hi Tim,

What PaulaO2 (and wilorg and others) said.

The oxygenated blood circulates first to the brain. It takes a while for the oxygenated blood (or under-oxigenated blood, in this case) to reach the finger and to be reported by the Oximeter. So a plummet in the Oximeter reading (measuring what's happening at the finger) will lag by tens of seconds the plummet in oxygen experienced earlier by the brain.

So although the oximeter data may appear to show that an increase in pulse rate occurred earlier than a drop in O2, the drop in O2 probably occured first.

For example, when asleep I sometimes have a slow pulse (around 35), and it sometimes takes over 30 seconds for an apnea to be reflected in a O2 Sat drop at my finger. Much earlier my brain will have started receiving under-oxigenated blood and will have caused my pulse rate to become elevated.

Quote:Some folks do much better with supplemental O2 at night.
Good point.

Take care,
--- Vaughn
The Advisory Member group provides advice and suggestions to Apnea Board administrators and staff on matters concerning Apnea Board operation and administrative policies.  Membership in the Advisory Member group should not be understood as in any way implying medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.
Post Reply Post Reply
#14
RE: Is it Normal For Oxygen to Drop with Heart Rate Increase?
Your heart rate goes up because the lack of oxygen to the brain triggers a wakening reflex. (I posted this last night before vsheline's excellent and more detailed explanation, but network problems seem to have prevented it going out until today).

Getting a perfect sync up between the device and sleepyhead is not important - just see if there is a near correlation. For now, trends are enough. Your heart rate, form the excerpts you have shared with us are not remarkable, and the interest is in the reason for the O2desaturations.

(disclaimer - I AM a physician, but ALWAYS go to your health care provider for any investigations. Diagnosing via this sort of forum is close to useless and I won't do it, but I will be happy to help you to better understand the information you have and point you in a direction - however, your own doctor has a far better overview of your case and can see things I cannot. One cherry picks one's problems when presenting them here, and so anyone reading this forum misses the greater view.)
Post Reply Post Reply
#15
RE: Is it Normal For Oxygen to Drop with Heart Rate Increase?
Nice chart!
Artifacts from the sensor (finger movement noise) shows up as a big gap in the data.
I don't see any gaps so that's good.
Your artifact count is good too. (0.2)
I think the number of desats you are getting below 90% is a bit high though, as well as the *time* spent below 90% saturation.
Hmm. If it was me, I would bump the pressure up 1cm on the max setting and see if that improves.
(Assuming no CA's are behind it.)
If you are sleeping on your back sometimes can mess up your breathing too.
See what Sleepyhead says about the data so you can compare!

Good work, 2Tim!

=^.^=

Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Flow rate kink at end of exhalation ahuman 7 73 17 minutes ago
Last Post: Sleeprider
  Do I need to increase my max pressure? Daveman 4 78 4 hours ago
Last Post: Sleeprider
  Airsense 10 - AHI account for leak rate? FriedRice 9 242 Yesterday, 06:16 AM
Last Post: FriedRice
  Which is the most normal waveform? SingleH 9 211 03-26-2024, 12:40 PM
Last Post: G. Szabo
  AirSense 10 leak rate baseline issue Phil7 6 1,411 03-25-2024, 05:49 AM
Last Post: FriedRice
  Taking Xyrem: what are these respiratory rate spikes DebJ 3 117 03-24-2024, 01:56 PM
Last Post: DebJ
  New user - is my experience normal? SleeplessGrouch 3 418 03-23-2024, 03:02 PM
Last Post: ButtonNoseBarbie


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

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