EPR and Centrals

[Lukie]

I have heard that sometimes turning down or turning off your EPR can reduce residual centrals that seem to crop up after the OAs and H's have been controlled. Anyone else have experience with this.

[Sleepster]

Some people have reported that the drop in pressure upon exhaling can induce central apneas. In the case of a BiPAP the drop is much greater than with just EPR, and that has been documented to cause centrals. It happened to me.

I think the effect goes away as you adapt to CPAP therapy.

Have you checked to see how long these CA events last? If you only have a few, and they don't last much more than 10 seconds, I wouldn't be overly concerned about them.

[Lukie]

I don't have that many and my stats are good but I still get an occasional hypopnea or central that lasts more than 10 seconds and wakes me up with the heart pounding\sick feeling oxygen desaturation thing.
If I even have one of these that I remember per night I feel pretty sick the next day. I have ordered a recording Oximeter to check out the apneas/leak/desaturation links. I use sleepyhead and rescan and will be able to down load the oximeter data on to the sleepyhead software.

[igdoc]

Probably cannot count me as I may have suggested it in the first place. My AHI was averaging 29 until I turned off the EPR when it came down to around 6 and often less. There is now a small collection of people (from various forums) who have significantly reduced their excess central events by doing this and have avoided the need for an adaptive servo (ASV) machine.

Persistent CPAP induced central apnea or Complex sleep apnea is relatively rare only affecting around 3% of the CPAP population. As Sleepster says, up to 15% have the problem initially but many improve spontaneously over the first 2 months as the body resets the Carbon Dioxide apnea levels. As mentioned previously a small number of central events are normal.

Ian

[zonk]

I have heard that sometimes turning down or turning off your EPR can reduce residual centrals that seem to crop up after the OAs and H's have been controlled. Anyone else have experience with this.

Not in my experience, I've turned off EPR as it does not feel natural for me to breath this way and seem to interfere with my breathing patterns but many people love it as feel for them easier to breath out against the pressure ... everyone is different

Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure Worsens Central Apneas During Sleep
http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...ring-Sleep

[Lukie]

I tried it and found it too uncomfortable to breathe out against the pressure. My average AHI over 3 months is 0.60 so I'm not worried about a few centrals but every now and then I have a doozie that wakes me up.