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Elevated Hypopnea But Everything Else is Good. But AHI is High as a Result
Hey Apnea Board,
Sure glad to have found a place like this on the web. I have been using my DreamStation the last two or three months - and sleep is like wonderful now. I started with an AHI of 26 or so, and it has come quickly down to about an AHI of 8 or 9 each night.
The problem is that 95% of the AHI events are Hypopneas. Unless I have a leak, I almost have no RERA, CA, OSA and PB events - mostly just the Hypopnea.
I am using an AutoPap set from 4.0 to 20.0 and my typical 90% pressure each night is 11.5 cm or less.
I am having a consistent 40 - 80 Hypopnea events a night.
How do I get these reduced down? Is it simply a matter of adjusting my DreamStation pressure? Or is that moot since it is an AutoPap?
Chart from SleepyHead is attached, of an example day.
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RE: Elevated Hypopnea But Everything Else is Good. But AHI is High as a Result
OK, I bumped up the min pressure to 8.0 and had my AHI drop to about 7 or 8, then to 8.5 and had it drop to 3 or 5 pretty consistently. Then finally bumped it up to 9.0 over the last week. My AHI has been anywhere from 1.2 - 3.99 since. Based on the graph, I am reluctant to go any higher on min pressure
No discomfort, and I really cannot tell any difference between 8 and 9 physically - but it did take my AHI down even further.
Here is last night's where I got an AHI of 4.0
It just looks like the machine's response does not exactly match the events...
Membership in the Advisory Members group does not imply medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.
RE: Elevated Hypopnea But Everything Else is Good. But AHI is High as a Result
Yeah I had tried my Flex setting at 2 and 3 but did not like it as much - so it is already at 1 this latest 2 months of activity. I feel more comfortable with a touch of backpressure when exhaling. But maybe I should give it a shot at a Flex of 2 or 3??
RE: Elevated Hypopnea But Everything Else is Good. But AHI is High as a Result
But my breathing rate chart puts my mind at ease.
My wife used to shove me and say "You have not taken a breath for at least a minute" in the old days, without a machine. And upon falling asleep still, I will suddenly rouse inside the first 15 minutes and realize that I have not taken a breath in like 30 seconds or something.
But what I see is that this is a phenomenon which only occurs for the most part right when I go to sleep and right before I awaken. Otherwise I am at about 18 breaths per minute - it is almost as if, when one is fully asleep, a different ANS routine takes over from the daytime ANS breathing.
Is this common to start the first 15 minutes of the night with a low breathing rate and then step into a normal one as soon as one is fully asleep?
Membership in the Advisory Members group does not imply medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.
RE: Elevated Hypopnea But Everything Else is Good. But AHI is High as a Result
(06-30-2018, 05:08 PM)Akhenaten33 Wrote: <snip>
Is this common to start the first 15 minutes of the night with a low breathing rate and then step into a normal one as soon as one is fully asleep?
Yep, sadly, yer jus' like the rest of us! (Well, there are exceptions but yes, that's typical. Makes sense, right?)
Oh! And I din' mean yer exactly the same – unlike me, for you, there's hope.
