[OSCAR] CPAP Interpretation Help

[Obmcbob]

Hi I was hoping someone here who is knowledgeable on how this stuff works could help me out. I just slept with my new CPAP for the first time and did still not feel good at all when waking up. I was looking at the results from last night in OSCAR, but I just have zero clue what I'm looking at. I would really appreciate any insight.

[Obmcbob]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[staceyburke]

You are having positional apnea.  You can see positional apnea where either H or Oa events are clustered together.  Getting rid of as many as you can will lower your AHI.  Positional apnea can NOT be controlled by pressure changes.  You have to find out what position you are getting into and cutting off your own airway.  Have you changed your sleep position?  Sleeping on your back?  Using more (or new) pillows?  These things can cause positional apnea by chin dropping to your sternum and cutting your airway.  Think of it of a kinked hose – nothing can get through – you have to unkink the hose…

IF you can’t make a simple change like changing to a flatter pillow helps then you will need a collar.  I have a link to collars in my signature at the bottom of the page.  It shows people who are not wearing a collar and the SAME person wearing a collar.  There is a huge difference between the two.

[Deborah K.]

Stacey, I sent you a PM.

[Deborah K.]

On a Resvent machine, what looks like positional apnea is actually flow limits. If the machine is bilevel, those are treated using Resvent's PS setting or the Resvent version of EPR if it is a regular CPAP or auto set.

[Dormeo]

For your machine, "IPR" is what provides a pressure drop when you exhale. It's hard to be sure, but it looks as though you currently have IPR set to 2. If so, I'd recommend that you increase that to 3, to try to help with your flow limitations.

You actually used the machine for 8+ hours your first night -- that's great! Hardly anyone wakes up from their first night of PAP treatment feeling rested, so you're in good company. It just takes time to get used to the new experience, so try to be patient with it.

I hope you'll feel free to post another chart in a day or two and let us know how it's going for you.