[CPAP] Oscar Data Help

[Jacob3660]

Hello!  I just started CPAP therapy for obstructive sleep apnea, and was hoping someone would be willing to look at my OSCAR data to provide general recommendations for settings.  Also, I seem to have a lot of clear airway events, despite my at home sleep test doctor saying I don't have central sleep apnea.  I've read that therapy can be cause these in the beginning, but is there anything I can do to help prevent these?  Also, I sleep with my mouth taped because my first few days of therapy had extreme leakage through my mouth.  It seems to still be somewhat leaking, but are these concerning values?  Thanks so much for your help.  I've attached my sleep study results as well in case that is relevant.

[staceyburke]

You do not have very many Centrals.  Most of us have some each night - we hold our breath to turn over, pull up a blanket or drink water at night.  These centrals may be caused by the therapy and will resolve as you become use to the therapy.  They come on be cause your body is use to having C02 in your blood stream and when the cpap is working it is taking the C02 away and expelling it in your exhale.  As your body gets use to less C02 these reduce but again, we all have some.

One thing you could improve on is your flow limits.  Flow limits are apnea just like O and H events only they are smaller and don'/t last as long.  But they can stop you from getting into deep sleep or even wake you up.  When your Cpap finds Flow Limits it raises pressure to stop them from becoming larger events (O and H).

We try to reduce flow limits using EPR.  You have your EPR on only during ramp.  I would turn it on to full time and change it to EPR 2.  Infact we usually reccomend you do away with the ramp alll together because when it is on ramp you are not getting any therapy and if you turn off the machine to go to the rest room and start it back up you are using the ramp again.