Sudden Increase in Centrals

[upsman]

I used to get <.5 total events almost every night. Many nights with 0 events. Almost 90% of these few events were central apneas.
Now all of a sudden, I'm noticing a steady increase in central events as reported by OSCAR. Today, for example, it was 2.7 events for the 7.5 hours I slept. 

Now I realize that less than 5 events per hour is considered treated, but the sudden and steady increase has me worried. Especially since they are almost all centrals.

The only change that has happened is that I switched from the ResMed N20 to the ResMed P30i. The uptick in events corresponded almost exactly to the mask change. I've used the P10 a while ago and although it irritated my nose, the events were still in the .2 to .5 range. 

Unless someone can suggest any other causes for this increase, I'll probably go back and try the N20 again and see if that corrects things. Note that I do have COPD and it's possible this has gotten a little worse and might affect things, but I've had COPD for many years and it's being properly treated.

Anybody have any insight on this? I can post OSCAR data if that would be helpful.
Thanks.

[Sleeprider]

Have you noticed any change in median or 95% pressure with the mask change? Is there a relationship of events to pressure? What kind of events? A couple of charts might be helpful here.

[upsman]

Sleeprider pid='346715' dateline='1587394832']Have you noticed any change in median or 95% pressure with the mask change? Is there a relationship of events to pressure?  What kind of events?  A couple of charts might be helpful here.

Here's a couple of current charts and a couple before mask change.

[SarcasticDave94]

We see attachment code upsman, but no actual charts. My guess it was an improper attachment link to a prior used attachment or the code got accidentally partially erased. I'd say best to try again.
They got fixed while I was posting...

[upsman]

We see attachment code upsman, but no actual charts. My guess it was an improper attachment link to a prior used attachment or the code got accidentally partially erased. I'd say best to try again.

Hmmm, thanks Dave. 
Musta did something wrong. Lemme figure out and try again. 


So I musta did it correctly? Fancy that. 

[Sleeprider]

I don't think it is anything to be concerned with, and time will tell if the higher AHI persists. On the 19th some CA events are clustered into a couple brief episodes, but the therapy generally resembles the better results on the 16 and 18th. The biggest change I see is a higher respiration rate and lower tidal volume. Do you feel any sense of air restriction with the new mask?

[upsman]

 The biggest change I see is a higher respiration rate and lower tidal volume. Do you feel any sense of air restriction with the new mask?

Thanks Sleeprider. Yes, I noticed the clustering of events last night and wondered about that.
I'm not noticing any sense of air restriction since using the new mask, but I'll pay closer attention to see if this is an issue. 

What really stuck out to me when I saw the events from last night was that a couple of the centrals were quite long....33 seconds, 21 seconds and so forth. That seemed very unusual to me.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[SarcasticDave94]

Something to consider: I'm obviously not certain about this, but on chart 1 above, a few CA events took place about 02:20, which is about 2 hours 20 minutes into sleeping/therapy. This is possibly when your body decided you needed a position change. If so, you could have held your breath for 30 sec. or so while moving around. Duplicate that a few times during the sleep session and there's your "CA" events. Not that I'm saying it did in fact happen, but it is possible. I'd look over data a few nights and see if there's a pattern to recognize.

[upsman]

This is possibly when your body decided you needed a position change. If so, you could have held your breath for 30 sec. or so while moving around. 

Thanks Dave. Yes, when I zoomed in on that cluster of events, it could very well have been a result of changing positions. My wife claims I've been more restless than normal. I don't know if this is a result of worrying about the current state of affairs, or if I'm just getting old and crotchety.    Probably the latter. 

I'll definitely watch to see if this is a trend. Thanks for your input.

[SarcasticDave94]

Welcome. If it were myself, I'd just keep an eye on it for several days. If it stays the same and if it's not hindering sleep, I 'd let it go. However, if it's interfering with sleep or CA issue gets worse, then it's time to consider doing something.