Does this sound like sleep apnea?

[jdip]

Hi everyone,

I will be doing a home test within the next couple of days.

In the meantime, I have a short clip here that shows 7-8 gasps for air within 10 minutes (the video is not 10 minutes!). Does this sound like sleep apnea to you guys? The thing is I don't actually stop breathing... My breathing seems to be study but very labored and followed by a gasp for air. Would this count as hypopnea?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T-ZkVc2V...e=youtu.be

Would appreciate any comments.

[trish6hundred]

Hi jdip,
Just an observation:
It sounds like you were somewhat congested, you had a squeek in your nose, (Ha-Ha,) and it sounded like you were kind of restless at different times during that recording. It will be interesting to see how you do when you get your study done.
Hang in there for more responses.

[PaulaO2]

It is really hard to tell. My guess, and that is just my guess, is more of a central apnea event. You do no labored breathing before hand. No snoring. Nothing. Just gasp, whistle through your nose, and it stops after just a few seconds.

It could also be that your blocked nose gets bad enough that it pulls you out of your sleep, you gasp, settle, and go back to sleep.

[jdip]

Thanks for the feedback both of you.

trish6hundred:
I seem to always have nasal congestion, especially at night. It seems like this leads to me not getting sufficient air at night. My nights are generally quite restless (I have an app on my phone that tracks my movement while I sleep) and I don't think I've had deep sleep in a long time. Even though it is restless I don't have much recollection of the numerous body position changes at night (which usually follow the gasps).

PaulaO2:
The audio suffers a bit since that video was just taken with my phone. The source audio I have on my computer has a lot more clarity if that would help. Also, if I had issues with central apnea instead of obstructive, do you know if home tests would pick that up or what I have to do a sleep study for that?

[trish6hundred]

Hi jdip,
You might try a sinus rinse before you go to bed to see if that will help your congestion.

[PaulaO2]

Yes, it should. The home test should have a chest strap that measures if the chest is moving and the rate it is moving (compared to respiratory rate).

If it were just congestion, I would think there would be more snorting or whistling prior to that. But then, I'm not a sleep doc nor a sleep tech. little ol' me.

[jdip]

I thought I would be able to go in today to pick up the home testing device but turns out I'll have to wait until Thursday, so the wait continues...

I was explaining to the person on the phone at the sleep clinic about how I don't actually stop breathing, but still have very noticeable gasps every now and then. He told me that this is quite common and that it sounds like hypopnea.

He also said I would have to do a 1 week CPAP trial where they loan me a machine for $300 to see how I did on the machine. I would get $100 back if I did well on it and ended up buying the machine from them. Is this common place? It seems like a good way for them to get me to throw more money at them. He said they do this because if I had Central Apneas that I would need a BiPAP machine... Is that true? I thought they were for those who have difficulty breathing with CPAPs.

Also, the video in OP wasn't great quality. I made a short compilation of other clips at higher quality on soundcloud if you're interested to take a listen. (The gasping is not in succession but rather is a bunch of clips spliced together.)
https://soundcloud.com/j_dip/compilation-of-gasps

[PaulaO2]

So the sleep clinic is also the supplier? Wow.

Here in the States, I'd tell you to run away and go somewhere else. But I'm not sure how that works in Canada.

So what they will do is have you use an overnight (or 2) trial, determine the diagnosis? At home testing is good because it is at home, in your own bed, where you are comfortable. You are more likely to actually sleep fairly normally which will get them a better picture. More than one night is good, too, if that is their plan. No two nights are the same. So one night you could have a lower apnea rate due to you had an unusually good day, low stress, and sleep soundly on your side. But the next night you had your typical bad day, high stress, and you moved about more, spent more time on your back, and had more apnea events.

Then if they determine you have sleep apnea, you would then rent a CPAP for a month for the titration? The rental use for a month is actually good because then they can determine the best pressure range or set pressure based on an established trend vs a single night.

[jdip]

Yes I was also wary about them diagnosing as well as selling the equipment... There's clearly a conflict of interests there. But it seems like there's a few places that do it here, and the place I'm going to seems to be a well established sleep clinic.

The home test is only for a single night. Hopefully it is enough to capture the real picture. But the CPAP rental is actually just for one week. I would have been less concerned if it was for a whole month, but it seems like a lot of money just for a week! Looks like I'm going to be paying for everything out of pocket too, which sucks.

[PaytonA]

I had a similar suspicion when I went for my first sleep test. The tech told me that the first half would be just sleep and the second half they would put me on a CPAP. Sounded to me like they had already made up their mind what the result of the sleep test was going to be. I was very suspicious of the whole thing and at the time I did not know for sure that this organization is also a DME.

I told my primary care physician about my suspicions and he told me that my medical group does not go to them for the equipment. That made me feel a lot better. As it turned out later on I have tested their prescription several times and found it to be right on. I have also been very please with their testing facility. I feel that it is extremely well done and they seem to have put in a lot of effort to make it as welcoming and natural for the patient as possible.

As an aside, I have not been all that happy with their administrative functions. About 4 years later I went back to them to get a copy of my original sleep test. It took me about a month and many calls to get a copy emailed to me. Luckily, due to calling a wrong number, I had the name of the responsible person in the organization. I had tried to go through their normal channels for this type of thing and produced only the wrong data. When I finally decided to go directly to the responsible person, I got a call back from him and had the correct report the same day.

Anyway, I guess my message is: Be suspicious but give them a chance to do the right thing. Just be ready to bring them up short if they start trying to lead you in a direction that you do not want to take.


Best Regards,

PaytonA