What is a 'Clear Airway' Event?

[palerider]

ResMed decided to call

Respironics decided to call them 'clear airway'.

Resmed and the rest of the sleep/respiratory industry calls them "Centrals".

[dreamstream]

Look at the Mouth Breathing segment of the Mask Primer.

Is that something in SleepyHead? Can't seem to find a place where I can see that data.

[Gideon]

Mask Primer is a Wiki article link is in my signature

[nallac]

While the apnea occurs, the machine  will send a few test pulses through the airway to see how you respond. If the pluses result in flow getting through, the airway is considered clear; if the pulses can't pass, your airway is considered obstructed

[EmmaA]

Hello Gideon,

I am a month or so into using CPAP therapy and I wanted to say how much I am appreciating all the valuable info on here.

I really love how you provided that list of links in your comment (edited to say I just realised that list of article links is in your signature - even smarter!! Love it!) to those several or so information articles, I have just downloaded them all as PDFs to study and really focus on. Feels kinda like enrolling in a new course somewhere! I love to try and educate myself and be proactive for myself about health things like this, so Apnea Board is invaluable.

Did you write some of those articles yourself? Wonderful work if you did, thank you.

Cheers,

Emma, in Australia.

[dloomis]

Adding on to this thread. Can I assume that the attached Clear Airway flow wave chart in Oscar is *not* a Central Apnea, since the CA is preceded by a large breath? Jason on YouTube seems to indicate the same on a few of his videos.

   

[SarcasticDave94]

I may be wrong, but I think that deep inhale at 23:34:50 a few ticks prior to the CA, and also inhale at 23:35:12 is why it's a CA of some sort. That deep inhale upset the CO2 balance, in my opinion. Between those mentioned inhales, your rate trace is unstable.

This can be a true Central or a breath hold.

[dloomis]

I may be wrong, but I think that deep inhale at 23:34:50 a few ticks prior to the CA, and also inhale at 23:35:12 is why it's a CA of some sort. That deep inhale upset the CO2 balance, in my opinion. Between those mentioned inhales, your rate trace is unstable.

This can be a true Central or a breath hold.

I hear you. Jason (LankyLefty on YT) says that "true" CAs occur right after a normal flow pattern and not after a deep breath, mainly due to neurologic reasons or more commonly the PAP device is clearing out CO2 more aggressively than it should. What I'm trying to figure out is why I'm taking these deep breaths and do I need to titrate differently based on these Clear Airway events. I'm assuming the answer is "no".