Central Apnea question

[jbuchanan6196]

Hi folks,

I know you all are not doctors and that I should have probably asked my doc last time I went but I'm curious about something. Maybe you guys could give some insight on it.

I would say probably 95% of the apneas I register on ResScan are central apneas, most between 10-17 seconds. However, some nights they are more frequent than others. For example, last night it showed I had 7 centrals while the night before just I had one. So is there any reason that these apneas occur more frequently some nights than others? I'm wondering what caused me to have more last night than previous nights.

My body definitely feels like I had that many apneas today more than other days, even with using CPAP. Phew.

in advance.

[SnuffySleeper]

Howdy,

Don't worry too much about central apneas in rescan/sleepyhead as these programs can only use air resistance recorded in wavforms to measure such events.

This in turn gives false positives as all the machine knows is that it sent a puff of air and never got anything back. This can be caused by many things, like changing position, breathing goes out of sync for a bit, mask leaked for a little bit..etc.....

What you want to look for are trends. If you start seeing a lot of centrals days in a row and you ahi is reaching over 5 a night then you know you have a problem.

My observation as I am a low pressure guy like you, is that resscan/sleepyhead reports CA events that are really hyponeas (shallow breathing) but because the pressure is low it dosen't have as much air resistance to read and marks it a central apnea.

Be a good idea to keep an eye on it, but it's also important how you feel when waking up, and like I said, it's only a problem if it becomes a recurring trend over a period of time.

[PaytonA]

I tend to get a number of apneas between the time when i wake up and when I take off the mask. Because of the pressure my CPAP is set to, I assume that these are centrals and also because I would have detected it if it was obstructive.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

[zonk]

Hi jbuchanan6196
You wrote today "I was taken off AutoPap to straight CPAP"
Why? also what was pressure setting, 95th percentile pressure, AHI breakdown of apnea events

As for central apnea, every have them from time to time but over time woud fade away
It become a concern when AHI consistently over 5, 50% are centrals and 5 central events per hour also tiredness during the day
Sometimes but not always, experimenting with EPR or turn off if you can live without it, may helps. Nothing ventured, nothing gained

[jbuchanan6196]

Hi jbuchanan6196
You wrote today "I was taken off AutoPap to straight CPAP"
Why? also what was pressure setting, 95th percentile pressure, AHI breakdown of apnea events

As for central apnea, every have them from time to time but over time woud fade away
It become a concern when AHI consistently over 5, 50% are centrals and 5 central events per hour also tiredness during the day
Sometimes but not always, experimenting with EPR or turn off if you can live without it, may helps. Nothing ventured, nothing gained

I was taken off AutoPap when they determined that a straight pressure of 7 was effective for me. I just went through some of the data and noticed the median was more around 8-9. I may try to bump it up a notch.

[herbm]

Technically, the machine doesn't even measure a "Central Apnea" (as that takes a pulse ox and maybe an EEG to comfirm) but a "Clear Airway" event.

You didn't mention your AHI (that I saw) but guessing from 7 such events and maybe one or two regular ones, you are running about 1.0 or so?

If so (and you are sleeping well) then don't worry about it. Not a deal much less a big one.

Those are short events as well, 10 seconds is the least that qualifies, so unless they cluster and wake you up or something, still not a deal.

I get them too. Probably 50 to 80% of my remaining events are CAs, and most of the others are hypopnia.

Unless you get a LOT of them so your overall AHI isn't controlled you can mention them to your doc but he'll likely say "not a deal".

BTW: You can also get these by just holding your breath while turning over or sometimes just by the transition from awake to asleep or asleep to awake breathing. (Your breathing is controlled by different parts of your brain during the two states, and sometimes the switch over isn't instantaneous.)

Also, a lot of my hypopnia events are bogus.

[Sleepster]

I would say probably 95% of the apneas I register on ResScan are central apneas, most between 10-17 seconds.

Are you new to CPAP therapy? If so, that is most likely the cause, and they will soon fade away. Your body is not used all the extra oxygen you're supplying, and those elevated oxygen levels trick your brain into thinking you don't need to breathe. It's good that they only last a short time as that means you are not damaging your body. They can, however, interfere with the quality of your sleep and cause you to be fatigued the next day.

However, some nights they are more frequent than others. For example, last night it showed I had 7 centrals while the night before just I had one. So is there any reason that these apneas occur more frequently some nights than others? I'm wondering what caused me to have more last night than previous nights.

Nothing is causing this, it's just a natural variation. It's like asking why it rains more on some days than others. That's just the way it is.

Do your numbers otherwise look good? That is, is your AHI below 5? Is your leak rate under control? Those are the two most important things.

[jbuchanan6196]

Sorry I left out some info! AHI has been low, like around 0.5, I don't think its ever gotten up to 2.0 which I know is great. I'm fairly new to therapy, my machine reads: Days>4 hours = 49/66, so about 9 weeks. That includes the couple weeks I was on Auto and the period I was trying to get used to it.

[jbuchanan6196]

Also, a LITTLE off topic but something else I just noticed:
When looking at detailed data in ResScan under Events, I understand that a RED tick is an obstructive apnea and BLACK/WHITE tick is central. Well, what are the small blue dots that don't rise or have a number above them? Is is something that is to short to pick up? Different type of disturbance?

I know I'm full of questions but remember I'm still a newbie ;-)

[Peter_C]

It can't really be off-topic when it';s your post Unless it's out of the scope of CPAP related stuff. As for questions, ask away~! Reading and asking are the best ways to learn as the school of hard knocks can be painful here...