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+--- Thread: Good AHI but Low Tidal Volume and Minute Ventilation (/Thread-Good-AHI-but-Low-Tidal-Volume-and-Minute-Ventilation)
Good AHI but Low Tidal Volume and Minute Ventilation - erolalper - 03-15-2024
Hello, I have been using a CPAP device regularly for about 2 months. I will write my values and settings below. When we look at my AHI value, I can see that it is very good, but I have some hesitations about Tidal Volume and Minute Ventilation. I think it's too low for me. I don't have any breathing problems that I know of. I tend to mouth breathe, but I think I've gotten over that. I sleep with a nose strip at night and feel like my nose is clear. Why do you think Tidal Volume and therefore Minute Ventilation may be low? I can share any graphics you want. Thanks.
Height: 170 cm.
Weight: 82 kg.
Device: Resmed S9 Elite
Mask: Resmed P10
Pressure: constant 8
EPR: 2
Minute Ventilation: 5 (1 week avg.)
Tidal Volume: 280 (1 week avg.)
Average Leak Rate: 7.33
95% Leak Rate: 20.40
AHI: 1 (1 week avg.)
RE: Good AHI but Low Tidal Volume and Minute Ventilation - BoxcarPete - 03-15-2024
I used to be a bit of a mouth breather, never thought much of it but recalled that sometimes adenoids could grow back (I had those and the tonsils out when I was a kid and it was life changing). I went off to an ENT who cross-specializes in sleep medicine and once he shoved his camera up there he had plenty of low hanging fruit he said he could clean up for me, including deviated septum, enlarged turbinates, and adenoids occupying the majority of my nasopharynx. I was a bit surprised because I hadn't noticed one nostril being worse than the other very much, which is supposed to be the major symptom, but there was a bone spur going the other way, which balanced things out so both sides underperformed.
After the surgery, my tidal volume and minute vent both increased about 10-15% from numbers that were like "bare minimum" to numbers that looked a little more reasonable for my size.