CPAP titration question...

[Adiamond87]

I'm waiting to get my cpap titration study scheduled. When I had my first study I had no events and my second study showed that I did have sleep apnea. My question is what happens if I have an atypical night again like the first study? How does that mess up the titration?

[OpalRose]

What AHI did the second study show?  

With a titration, you will be hooked up to a machine and wear a mask.  The technicians will monitor you and your apnea events and raise or lower pressures accordingly to find the most optimal pressure that takes care of most of your events.  Hopefully you will sleep through the process.

Remember that this is just one night, and you will discover that once you are home, AHI levels will vary each night.   Good luck with your titration and keep us posted.
Don't forget to get a copy of your sleep study and titration for your records.  Also get a copy of the script the doctor will write.

[Sleeprider]

Titration is a complete waste of time except for eliminating the possibility of complex apnea. For most people, giving them an auto CPAP and some basic instructions would work much better. Based on your study results I can already tell you will be "titrated" at 7 or 8 cm pressure. The CPAP titration protocol will probably start you out at 5 cm and increasing pressures will be tried. Chances are there will not be any apnea events with CPAP pressure, but they will evaluate for hypopnea and it's likely your optimum pressure will be on the lower end. You have your diagnosis, so whether you have events or not isn't very important, they will consider CPAP successful if that happens.

At this point you need to start finding a DME that will issue an auto machine, or persuade your doctor to prescribe auto CPAP, even though the titration will recommend a single pressure. That pressure is great at the clinic, but once you're home, you may have allergies, colds, health changes, weight changes etc that an auto CPAP will treat better. You already know your events change from night to night based on your previous tests. Auto CPAP can deal with that better than fixed.

[Adiamond87]

Thanks guys ?

[Gideon]

Welcome to the forum

It is VERY important to get an Auto Cpap machine as SleepRider has suggested.
Additionally, while in the sleep lab, Try on as many masks as you can, then pick the one that seems best to you.  Masks are individual and MUST be tried on under pressure and preferrable lying down in your normal sleeping position.  Masks fit differently when lying down than when upright.

See the mask primer (in my signature) for some strategies.

[Mosquitobait]

If you are on Medicare, you may be stuck with the titration whether you want it or not. Waste of time without several weeks of data with an auto-machine, but there you go. You are stuck for it. On the plus side, for me, is that it showed I still had a heart blip as indicated in the first study.