OSCAR Report Analysis Help? How am I doing

[tierdal]

wooooh .13?!?! wow i thought i was doing well!

[SarcasticDave94]

I think you're doing good with the therapy, except for some flow limits that may be wanting a cleanup. Get that under control by way of a small increase in pressure and you'll likely be set to cruise along.

[tierdal]

what is a flow limit exactly?

[sheepless]

there's a glossary under help in oscar that links to the wiki:

Flow Limitation (FL) - Partial closure of the upper airway, which impedes the flow of air into the lungs.

from the resmed website: flow limitation refers to any event that limits the flow of air into your body, due to a blockage or collapse of your upper airway.

by that definition obstructive hypopnea and apnea are flow limitations. however, hypopnea and apnea aren't 'flagged' as flow limitations so for the purposes of reporting these less restrictive events, the algorithms must define them at a some level of restriction lower than apnea and hypopnea.

I expect someone here knows but in 15 minutes of searching online I could not find an exact percentage of restriction that distinguishes flow limitation from hypopnea and apnea.

[tierdal]

Thanks! They all seem like different levles of obstructions based on time they persist (Apnea) or what they do (RERA)

[staceyburke]

For apnea classification see my signature

[multicast]

(Someone said Jehova ... ) The term "flow limitation" is ambiguous. It may refer to a physical event (airway reopening after initial collapse, soft-tissue vibration, phasic upper airway dilation, tracheal traction and more) happening in the airway.

On the other hand, ResMed's machines *grades* the airflow, resulting in a number between 0 and 1, confusingly called "flow limitation" as well, which may or may not correspond to an actual physical event describe above -- there may be an obstruction where the machine reports a flow limitation of zero, e.g.

Only the eye of a trained beholder may judge from the flow rate diagram whether there may have happened a physical flow limitation.