Apnea Designations in Oscar?

[Reesche]

What is the difference between...

1. Central Apnea-Clear Air CA

2. Obstructive Apnea

3. Unclassified Apneas

4. Hypopneas

When reading daily data after 4 months of CPAP usage? How to understand these settings.

Reesche

[Old Mike]

CA's are where your brain decides to stop you breathing, OA's are where your airway gets blocked, but you're brain still wants to breathe. Resmed machines can tell the difference by a proprietary technology called FOT (machine sends small rapid oscillations in pressure to detect whether airway is blocked or not). You're machine is capable of treating both AFIK. Unclassified is where the FOT process is inclusive, i.e. the machine is unsure. Finally, an hypopnea is a sort of partial OA, where the airway is only partially blocked (50% or worse I think, but I may be wrong in the percentage).

[staceyburke]

Central and clear airway are the same thing.  No obstruction, your holding your breath.  It can be a problem that has to have a special pap machine that is more expensive.  Other centrals may come up as you first start using the machine.  They as known as emergent centrals and go away as your body becomes adjusted to the therapy.

All obstructive apnea are classified as to their length of time, amount of obstruction.  I have those listed in my signature at the bottom of the post.  They are all apnea just a way to tell how severe they are.

Then there are  positional apnea.  You are having a few positional apnea.  Positional apnea can NOT be controlled by pressure changes.  You have to find out what position you are getting into and cutting off your own airway.  Have you changed your sleep position?  Sleeping on your back?  Using more (or new) pillows?  These things can cause positional apnea by chin dropping to your sternum and cutting your airway.  Think of it of a kinked hose – nothing can get through – you have to unkink the hose…

You can see positional apnea when there are grouped or clustered Oa or/and H events.  You have some around 1:40 and another group around 5.

IF you can’t make a simple change like changing to a flatter pillow helps then you will need a collar.  I have a link to collars in my signature at the bottom of the page.  It shows people who are not wearing a collar and the SAME person wearing a collar.  There is a huge difference between the two.

[Nehpets]

I am learning to interpret the readings as well.  During the past month, as a new user of OSCAR, there have been weekly reports of Cheyne Stokes Respiration, along with elevated AHI's.  I've done some research on CSR, but aside from understanding it's how one breathes as they die, which in itself is not comforting, what is the overall significance of CSR when reported by OSCAR?

Thanks!

[Crimson Nape]

CSR was a very poor choice for an event label by Resmed. The probability is higher that you are experiencing Periodic Breathing. You would be surprised how many members have been alarmed by seeing this. It's my belief that Resmed did a disservice by using this label name.

- Red

[Nehpets]

Do I understand correctly that the report of CSR is generated by Resmed and only reported by OSCAR for users of Resmed machines and that users of other brands don't see CSR reported by OSCAR?

Thanks for the info!

[Crimson Nape]

You are correct! Philips uses the more appropriate term Periodic Breathing (PB) for this paramter.

- Red

[Reesche]

Central and clear airway are the same thing.  No obstruction, your holding your breath.  It can be a problem that has to have a special pap machine that is more expensive.  Other centrals may come up as you first start using the machine.  They as known as emergent centrals and go away as your body becomes adjusted to the therapy.

All obstructive apnea are classified as to their length of time, amount of obstruction.  I have those listed in my signature at the bottom of the post.  They are all apnea just a way to tell how severe they are.

Then there are  positional apnea.  You are having a few positional apnea.  Positional apnea can NOT be controlled by pressure changes.  You have to find out what position you are getting into and cutting off your own airway.  Have you changed your sleep position?  Sleeping on your back?  Using more (or new) pillows?  These things can cause positional apnea by chin dropping to your sternum and cutting your airway.  Think of it of a kinked hose – nothing can get through – you have to unkink the hose…

You can see positional apnea when there are grouped or clustered Oa or/and H events.  You have some around 1:40 and another group around 5.

IF you can’t make a simple change like changing to a flatter pillow helps then you will need a collar.  I have a link to collars in my signature at the bottom of the page.  It shows people who are not wearing a collar and the SAME person wearing a collar.  There is a huge difference between the two.


Hi Stacey... I want to thank you for your ideas on changing out to a lower, softer pillow.  I think this has helped the airway. I recently changed masks (ResMed 30i to a Fisher Paykel Evora and have had way less leaks.  Now I what to understand the apneas definations.  The CA in Oscar was throwing me.  Does it really mean Central Apnea?   Thank you again for your advise.  Reesche

[Gideon]

For practical purposes you can consider CA to be central apnea.

Technically it is an open, non-resricted, clear airway as there is no way for for device to know your sleep state, nor your oxygen desats from events since neither your brain signals nor your oxygen stats are being monitored by the pap device.

[dataq1]

SUPRISE....
Your OSCAR program has the definitions 
:
From your OSCAR home page (initial screen), click on the HELP tab (upper left) , then select "Sleep Disorder Terms Glossary"

That said, I have a slight disagreement with those that say Central Apnea is the same as Clear Airway Apnea.
Firstly, I don't know where on your OSCAR reports you see the words "Central Apnea", I don't see that on my reports. And possibly for good reason - because it is a diagnosis, than than a report of a clinical sign. I don't know that Resmed (or others) claim the ability to diagnose.

The clinical sign that OSCAR is reporting is "Clear Airway Apnea". That sign can be the caused by a number of conditions, some of which are relatively benign (like a pause in breathing after a sigh, or immediately after an arousal) or it could caused by a group of physio-pathological conditions that range from brain dysfunction (caused by tumor) to periodic hypocapnia (which may be the result of a periodic hyperventilation). 

This last group (physio-pathologic) of conditions is what medical professional call "central apnea".