Can Itamar WatchPAT distinguish types of events?

Darth Lady wrote:...all I can do is hope that time sorts this out.

First of all, the likelihood of success utilizing that approach is a little less than nil, and second, you can get the complete data from your previous studies.

Thirdly, it must be determined if this is a sleepiness problem or a fatigue problem.

Morbius wrote:Thirdly, it must be determined if this is a sleepiness problem or a fatigue problem.

An interesting question. I do have frequent fatigue, but I can and often do fall asleep in the daytime, any time I don't have to be active.

When I'm next at the sleep doc (early May), I'll just ask for the data from all four studies including the upcoming one. They'll be a rattling good read, I'm sure.

Morbius wrote:Thirdly, it must be determined if this is a sleepiness problem or a fatigue problem.

I know there's a difference between a sleepiness problem and a fatigue problem.

But care to explain what you think are good ways to distinguish between the two problems?

Darth Lady wrote:When I'm next at the sleep doc (early May), I'll just ask for the data from all four studies...

OK, get the Watch-PAT Report that looks like this:



Then we can slap it on top of SH for that night and figure out who's calling what where, how severe the desats are, etc.

Ok. I think I have that one already. I'll check when I get home. I think it's black and white but hopefully it will be legible.

We got a copy of the WatchPAT study, which took place the night of March 4-5. Imgur made total hash of it, so here is a dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sb0b0mgxedenk ... y.zip?dl=0

I hope this works better, for anyone interested. Morbius?
The desats weren't as bad as I thought, but apparently its criterion for flagging events includes 3% desats. Perhaps those disturb my sleep? PLMS, maybe? Who knows?

Anyway, it's into the shop tonight for...Sleep Study #4! Wanna lay bets on whether I actually sleep this time?

ODI 1.0.

Darth Lady wrote:The desats weren't as bad as I thought...

Ya think!!!?

Morbius wrote:ODI 1.0.

Darth Lady wrote:The desats weren't as bad as I thought...

Ya think!!!?

I'm glad you feel better than I do. I guess I'm just supposed to feel this way, and I should accept it as normal. Makes life not so fun, but I can baseline function so I guess it's OK.

Darth Lady wrote:Makes life not so fun....

Hey, life is what you make it. Everybody's got baggage. Ya either drag it along or let it drag you.

Anyway, this area does look busy:



but the sats are well into the 90's. This is just as we discussed. It's relatively early in the night, so yes, I'd be looking for PLMs.

However, the Watch-PAT is calling some REM in there, and PLMs usually don't extend into REM.

And if they were respiratory events, one would think they would have got worse in REM, but they didn't.

Further, closer examination of the oximetry shows that these events are not de-saturating; rather the baseline has increased, so they are actually super-saturating:

Morbius wrote:It's relatively early in the night, so yes, I'd be looking for PLMs.

However, the Watch-PAT is calling some REM in there, and PLMs usually don't extend into REM.

And if they were respiratory events, one would think they would have got worse in REM, but they didn't.

I'll make sure to specifically ask the doc when I see her whether, in last night's study (or any of the others, for that matter), I had PLMs during REM. The possibility has been raised that I may be in the early stages of some form of motor neuron disease because of other symptoms I've had, and I think some forms of that can involve movement during REM, no?

I know I had PLMs last night early in the night, because they kept waking me up just as I was falling asleep , so it's definitely an issue. The question is how big an issue.

Thanks for your input. I'll post again when I know more, after seeing the doc.

subscribing to see what you find out

i am trying to get my watchpat data from my sleep doctor because i was skeptical about the diagnosis and would like to go to a sleep center for a full test

also, i know that it shouldn't directly affect your breathing, but are there any environmental factors that could contribute to your arousals? for example: your cat stomps on your face every night at 3:20am...

C&C wrote:subscribing to see what you find out

i am trying to get my watchpat data from my sleep doctor because i was skeptical about the diagnosis and would like to go to a sleep center for a full test

also, i know that it shouldn't directly affect your breathing, but are there any environmental factors that could contribute to your arousals? for example: your cat stomps on your face every night at 3:20am...

The tech at the sleep center I went to had nothing good to say about WatchPAT; he pointed out that you can desaturate simply by turning over in bed, because it's natural to hold your breath when moving, and supposedly it is likely to then call that a respiratory event, whereas he, the sleep technician who is watching your night in bed, would call it a turning-over-in-bed event. On the other hand, WatchPAT's manufacturer claims they went head to head with polysomnography equipment in full-scale sleep studies and came out approximately the same. All I know is that WatchPAT and my dear Dartha (my ASV) disagree completely about my condition.

So I had the retitration study. Won't know the results until May 1. Can't wait .

Cats at 3:20 a.m. - is that autobiographical? I tend to wake up our cats more than they wake up me, but who knows what happens while I'm asleep . They may account for some of it. But a lot of it has a very regular periodicity that isn't likely to be cat-related, unless they're doing Zumba on top of me .

I'd get a full sleep study if there is any way you can either get insurance to cover it or afford it. And do get the WatchPAT report - you're legally entitled to it. Stick it up here and maybe Morbius or somebody can comment.