Confusing Sleep Study Data

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
zerostatic
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Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by zerostatic » Sat May 23, 2015 7:24 pm

I've been dealing with a few health issues over the last few years. I was originally diagnosed with Sleep Apnea several years ago with an initial sleep study indicating an AHI of 20. I eventually got a septoplasty for a deviated septum which definitely helped with my sleeping issues but was not a complete cure. I've tried using cpap off and on, and I had another sleep study and cpap titration at the beginning of 2014. Recently I've contemplated starting cpap again, but the numbers on the polysomnography report don't add up for me. Almost every metric was worse on cpap and yet I was still advised to be on it. I still have terrible trouble sleeping and other health problems potentially associated with Sleep Apnea. Any help or insight on this would be greatly appreciated. I've included the data below.

Stats: Without cpap with cpap 8cm/h20
Oxygen 99% above 90% 100% over 90
Lowest Ox 90% 93%
AHI/NREM .4 .8
AHI/REM 6.3 9.4
RDI/NREM 4.7 13.8
RDI/REM 25.3 55.3
RERA/REM 12 34
RERA/NREM 21 65
APNEAS/REM 4 0
APNEAS/NREM 0 0

Images of data:
http://imgur.com/a/6t9He
http://imgur.com/a/QOeqB
Last edited by zerostatic on Sat May 23, 2015 8:21 pm, edited 3 times in total.

HoseCrusher
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by HoseCrusher » Sat May 23, 2015 7:31 pm

It is interesting to observe that while AHI, RDI, RERA, and APNEAS are all a little higher on CPAP your lowest oxygen levels are actually higher. I wounder if a pressure of 8 is optimum for you...

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kteague
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by kteague » Sat May 23, 2015 7:33 pm

Hello and welcome. Are you able to scan and post your reports (minus your name etc)? The numbers you have given are not enough to understand what's going on with your sleep. I'm just guessing the second set of numbers was from your titration. If you machine has data, it would be interesting to see that. The gurus here will be able to give you input with more to work with. BTW, I'm not one of the gurus. Just saying welcome.

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zerostatic
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by zerostatic » Sat May 23, 2015 7:39 pm

I broke it up into two columns, the second row is with cpap. I am not currently using cpap so do not have much extra data to provide. I am trying to figure out if this is the source of some other health problems so that I can begin address it, but I do not want to use cpap if it's going to make the issue worse.

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Krelvin
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by Krelvin » Sat May 23, 2015 7:43 pm

I think the problem is there is not enough information from what you posted. Nothing about how many minutes were analyzed, what stages of sleep and how long you were in them, position etc...

Did you talk to your Dr about the report?
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zerostatic
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by zerostatic » Sat May 23, 2015 8:31 pm

I've edited the post and added the relevant data, still trying how to rotate images on imgur. Apologies.

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kaiasgram
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by kaiasgram » Sat May 23, 2015 8:53 pm

zerostatic --Before we try to investigate further, are you sure you have the "with" and "without" numbers identified correctly? Looking at the images you posted, I noticed this:

Image

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zerostatic
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by zerostatic » Sat May 23, 2015 9:21 pm

Those numbers are correct.

zerostatic
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by zerostatic » Mon May 25, 2015 2:31 pm

If anyone has any imput on this, I'd really appreciate it.

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Morbius
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by Morbius » Mon May 25, 2015 2:50 pm

I think you need to explain the data.

You said
RDI/NREM 13.8
RDI/REM 55.3
for CPAP but then post an image that says:
Respiratory arousals 0.0
which is impossible.

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kaiasgram
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by kaiasgram » Mon May 25, 2015 7:14 pm

Morbius -- Am I right to assume that "Respiratory Arousal" = RERA ?

Looking at zerostatic's With CPAP reports:

Under Respiratory Events Summary (With CPAP Chart 1)

..... RERA (Total) = 99

Under Arousal Summary (With CPAP Chart 2)

.....Respiratory Arousal (Total) = 0



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Morbius
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by Morbius » Mon May 25, 2015 7:21 pm

kaiasgram wrote:Am I right to assume that "Respiratory Arousal" = RERA ?
Arousals can (and pretty much do) follow all respiratory events, but certainly, by definition, they ARE a RERA, so yeah, there should be a lot more than "none".

Or the text values are incorrect.

Or ?????

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kaiasgram
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by kaiasgram » Mon May 25, 2015 7:27 pm

Morbius wrote:
kaiasgram wrote:Am I right to assume that "Respiratory Arousal" = RERA ?
Arousals can (and pretty much do) follow all respiratory events, but certainly, by definition, they ARE a RERA, so yeah, there should be a lot more than "none".

Or the text values are incorrect.

Or ?????
OK, thanks. So then, we shouldn't even be trying to make sense of these reports because there are apparent errors...

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zerostatic
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by zerostatic » Mon May 25, 2015 10:27 pm

would more reras on cpap mean I need a higher pressure? Should I go get another sleep study? I'm not even really sure what to do at this point.

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kaiasgram
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Re: Confusing Sleep Study Data

Post by kaiasgram » Tue May 26, 2015 1:30 am

zerostatic wrote:would more reras on cpap mean I need a higher pressure? Should I go get another sleep study? I'm not even really sure what to do at this point.
I would first talk with your doctor and ask what he/she makes of the strange numbers, and ask for a review/rescoring of the sleep studies to rule out errors in the data reporting.

It's difficult to know what if anything you need to do with your machine settings given the discrepancies in those reports. A lot of RERAs might mean you need more pressure, but I wouldn't do any pressure adjusting (or sleep study scheduling) before you consult with your doctor and get the odd reports straightened out. They don't make sense.

Do you still have your machine? What make and model? If you have a data capable machine you should start using it, and let SleepyHead tell you what's going on. Depending on which machine you have, you might get some hints about whether RERAs are a potential problem.

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