[Treatment] Need help with interpreting OSCAR chart

[Zanshin77]

Hi all,

I'm a new CPAP user.
I started being tired all the time, even after 8-9 hours of sleep. Got a pulse oxymeter and saw my blood oxygen dropping to the 80's during the night. Got a home sleep study test through Lofta. Got diagnosed with mild sleep apnea. Got a Resmed Airsense 10 two weeks ago with the F40 full face mask (I'm a mouth breather) and I've been trying to get used to it since then but the sleep apnea is getting worse. 

Last night I changed my settings to these as a baseline so I could get you guys' opinions:
Mode APAP
Min pressure 7
Max pressure 15
EPR 2 full-time
No ramp

I'll appreciate any help. Let me know if you need more information.

Thanks.

[Dormeo]

Welcome! I have several observations about your chart, plus some recommendations for experimenting with some changes.

First, it's great that you seem to have leaks under control and that you're sleeping all night with the mask. Congratulations!

Your OAs tend to be clustered, and this can be a sign of positional apnea. Please read this: https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...onal_Apnea

In addition, you are seeing a fair amount of flow-limited breathing. Please read this: https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...limitation Your FLs may be related to positional issues as well.

Finally, you are having CAs. These are periods of 10 seconds or more when you're not breathing and your airway isn't obstructed. CAs commonly occur after arousal breathing, probably because the deeper arousal breathing slightly reduces the CO2 in your blood, which slightly delays the "breathe now" signal to your brain. You can zoom in on a CA or two to see whether they followed arousal breathing, which is deeper and messier-looking than regular asleep breathing. If that's what's going on with you, then as your arousals decrease, your CAs will too. In addition, many CPAP users find that CAs occur less often as time goes by and the body adjusts.

So my advice is to ignore the CAs for now and address positional issues. If you use a high pillow, or several pillows, try using a single, fairly firm, fairly low pillow instead. And if you sleep on your back for part of the night, try sleeping more on your sides. If those measures don't work, you can try a soft cervical collar.

In addition, I'd recommend raising your minimum to 8 and increasing your EPR to 3. The EPR may help with the FLs (and the snores). It may also nudge your CA index up a bit, but I wouldn't worry too much about that. After a few nights with these revised settings, you may want to raise your minimum again, but first let's see how it goes.

[Zanshin77]

Thanks, appreciate the help.
I'll try the settings changes. I'm already using a single pillow, it's memory foam, with notches on the sides for CPAP masks.
I believe I do a mix of back and side sleeping. Not sure how I can switch to mostly side?

[Dormeo]

Some people use a well-placed pillow or two, either to hug or to prop behind the back.