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Am I really having central apnea?
#1
Am I really having central apnea?
Last night's bad dream was associated with a clear airway event. Often that seems to be the case. Thus far, these bad dreams exclusively happen on my back, so I'm wondering if the machine is categorizing it incorrectly, as it seems suspicious for obstructive apnea to me. If it is obstructive, then I'd like to bump up my settings. If it central apnea, then increasing my settings might not be a good idea as that can worsen central apnea. Can someone take a look and let me know if you think my event looks more obstructive or central? The machine says I don't have very many events, but I feel like I have a lot of RERA's not captured by the machine (perhaps that can be a different post). Anyway, I included a zoomed in version so you can look at the flow rate graph more closely. What do you think? Central or obstructive? 

   


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#2
RE: Am I really having central apnea?
You had literally one central apnea all night.  That is absolutely nothing to worry about. Smile
Machine:  ResMed AirCurve 10 Vauto
Mask:  Bleep DreamPort Sleep Solution
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#3
RE: Am I really having central apnea?
(07-12-2024, 05:27 PM)Deborah K. Wrote: You had literally one central apnea all night.  That is absolutely nothing to worry about.  Smile

They typically happen between 3-7am. I get runs of them and they are typically associated with bad dreams. It's... bad dream, go back to sleep. Bad dream, go back to sleep, bad dream, go back to sleep. Perhaps if they weren't associated with nightmares, I would be less inclined to chase them. After that one from last night (around 3am), I took off my CPAP and slept on my side for the rest of the night and had no more bad dreams for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, if I flip to my side, I swallow a lot of air and end up with belly pain... Hence, no CPAP data after 3am. So why not just exclusively side sleep and be done with all this? I did that for the first half of the year (prior to CPAP) to avoid having nightmares every night, but my obvious and not age appropriate cognitive decline, memory, and processing issues led me to pursue a sleep study. I have UARS, not sure if that makes a difference in how one would look at all this. On my at home sleep study, my AHI was 1 event per hour (which is excellent, right?) but the RDI bought me the CPAP. I was told all this is likely an underestimate as the gold standard is putting a probe into my esophagus. Anyway, that's why I'm here.
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#4
Rainbow 
RE: Am I really having central apnea?
There are events flagged as a “CA”, but it is not a central apnoea. it is a “clear airway”. This means the airway is clear but you did not take a breath within 10 seconds. A true central apnoea is typically associated with heart issues, stroke patients, and a few other serious conditions. If you take a look at an OSCAR chart and zoom into a 2-3 minute area with CA’s, you will see the machine pulsing during the CA, which means the airway is open but you are not breathing. They frequently happen during tossing and turning, moving around, etc.

If they did not show up during your sleep study en masse and nothing has changed health-wise, then nothing to worry about as Deb said.
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#5
RE: Am I really having central apnea?
What info did your sleep study details contain? For concerns about Central Apnea treatment, this is where to start, the beginning of data for them.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#6
RE: Am I really having central apnea?
(07-13-2024, 09:41 AM)SarcasticDave94 Wrote: What info did your sleep study details contain? For concerns about Central Apnea treatment, this is where to start, the beginning of data for them.

Here are my WatchPat results: AHI 0.9 per hour, RDI=5.2 per hour, 10.5% of sleep time >40dB, 92% minimum O2 sat, 95% average O2 sat, 18.15% REM sleep, 24.30% deep sleep, 57.55% light sleep

Although my dataset is small and limited, I seem to have more clear airway events, the higher I go up on my minimum pressure. Because of this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8974380/ , I'd like to better understand how to read these flow things myself. I did read this: https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...limitation and am wondering... am I closer to the incompletely treated flow limitation? Or does it look more like treated flow limitation?
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#7
RE: Am I really having central apnea?
Increasing pressure might increase the CA flags on the CPAP. It will probably also respond better to all other events, generically speaking.

CA are on one side of the treatment teeter-totter, while all other events are on the other side. Attempts to reduce CA will very likely increase the others, then vice versa. With the one CA we've seen in a chart, it's not really making sense to hinder everything else for one CA.

Myself would be a different story, as my CA were Central Apnea, and are predominant on the sleep study. 2017 study had my Central Apnea at 124 events vs 24 Obstructive Apnea before CPAP. On standard CPAP or bilevel without backup rates, the CA about doubled. My treated CA on specialized ASV gave overall AHI about 3.0 until COPD hindered.

The point is having a few CA isn't all that bad, even if there were 10 to 20 a night. Again my chart on your style CPAP would probably have a big purple bar across the event flags chart.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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