Central Apnea

[projman65]

What's a good central apnea number? Mine has been ranging from 0.1 to 0.4. Is this something I need to be concerned with?

Thanks.

[zimlich]

No, you do not need to be concerned with that number of central apneas. You are not even having one an hour or even one every night probably. There is no good central apnea number. We all probably have some during certain stages of the sleep cycle or different things like yawning can be mistaken for a central apnea. You have realy good CA numbers, so really, please don't worry. If you like mention it to your sleep doc the next time you go, but I don't think this warrants an appointment by itself. Good luck.

[Sleepster]

What's a good central apnea number? Mine has been ranging from 0.1 to 0.4. Is this something I need to be concerned with?

What's your AHI? Your OA?

[projman65]

What's a good central apnea number? Mine has been ranging from 0.1 to 0.4. Is this something I need to be concerned with?

What's your AHI? Your OA?

Here are my average numbers from ResScan for the last 7 days:

Apnea Index: 2.9
Obstructive: 2.7
Central 0.1
Unknown 0.0

Hypopnea Index: 0.8
AHI: 3.7

[PaulaO2]

Those are freakin' fantastic numbers. You want the AHI to be less than 5.

Those numbers are averages. Meaning the software takes the number of events over the entire night and divides it by the number of hours you slept. So if you slept 8 and have an AHI of 3.7, that would be 29.6 events the entire night! Which is great!

AHI is the number of apneas (central and obstructive) plus the number of hyopopneas (where your breathing was very shallow) divided by the number of hours slept.

[Sleepster]

Here are my average numbers from ResScan for the last 7 days:

Apnea Index: 2.9
Obstructive: 2.7
Central 0.1
Unknown 0.0

Hypopnea Index: 0.8
AHI: 3.7

Many people would be ecstatic to have a AHI that low. Things are looking good and the CA index of 0.1 is nothing to be concerned about at all.

The reason I asked about your other numbers is because often when people raise their pressure to lower their OA index, it makes their CA index rise.

Now, you need not be concerned about your AHI since it's below 5. And I doubt any doctor would even consider adjusting your pressure because of that, I know mine wouldn't.

On the other hand, if you are thinking of trying to lower it further, we'd need to see the data for a longer period of time than just one week. What are the numbers for the last month? On how many of the last 30 days did your AHI rise above 5? How much time does your autoset keep the pressure near the upper end of your pressure range?

I was able to convince my doctor to adjust my pressure, even though my AHI averaged less than 5, because there was about one day in ten where it rose above 5. He tweaked the pressure a bit and now my AHI averages about 2, and never goes above 5. Lately it's been dominated by hypopneas, but they last for just a bit longer than 10 seconds. I'm still waking up several times throughout the night, but I'm starting a more rigorous exercise regime in the hopes I can make an improvement there.

[projman65]

Yes, my numbers have been good. AHI consistently under 5. No complaints there. My leak numbers have been decent as well (around 10).
However, I've only been on this new machine for about a week or so. I'll give it a couple more weeks before I make any conclusions. The number I'm watching the most is my 95% pressure. It's been consistent at 15.8 (machine set at 10-16 range). So it's been on the high side every night.

My plan is to give my body another 2 weeks of getting used to the new settings before considering making any tweaking. Before switching to the S9 Autoset I was on a basic CPAP (Pressure 11) for 4 years.

I will keep updating my progress.

Thanks for all the input.

[PaulaO2]

Oh, well, yeah, a week is not long enough. But it is looking good so far. You may end up bumping that upper number a notch or two.

[Sleepster]

I will keep updating my progress.

Thanks for all the input.

You're welcome. Please let us know how things are looking after a month or so. It's really way to early to draw any conclusions. Your body is adjusting to the new higher pressure, and it's likely your AHI will change significantly in the next couple of weeks.