Clear Airway Events

[ezliv]

Are these actually Central Apneas? I seem to have several of them in my graphs. I am seeing my Sleep Dr. in a couple of days and wondered whether it was worth mentioning? She will have data (hopefully) available from my cpap monitoring provider.

Thanks

[jnk...]

Are these actually Central Apneas? I seem to have several of them in my graphs. I am seeing my Sleep Dr. in a couple of days and wondered whether it was worth mentioning? She will have data (hopefully) available from my cpap monitoring provider.

Thanks

If you are able to post SleepyHead graphs of the "events," experts may be able to weigh in on the "worth" of mentioning them to a doc, based on how the "events" look. But in general . . .

A clear-airway "event" is unlikely to be purely obstructive, so it logically will often get called "central" in the home-treatment-machine realm. But that label based on home-machine data does not carry as much weight as a labeled central event from a sleep study in which much more data get collected to identify events more definitively. Some of the "events" our home machines report to some of us as clear-airway "events" might actually get ignored, not labeled at all, during a lab/center sleep study.

The significance of reports of clear-airway "events" from a home-treatment machine often depends on how many of the "events" there are and how the "events" are spaced from one another--as in, are they seemingly random and occasional? or are they regularly occurring and clustered?

Anything that is of any concern to you is worth mentioning to a sleep doc during an appointment, as long as you indicate to the doc by your expression and body language that you respect the doc's views on what should and should not concern you going forward. Don't show disrespect, though; docs can smell disrespect. And some of them are very, very sensitive. Just ask in a low-key way, and then thank them for the education. Most love curious, attentive, and involved patients, as long as those patients don't mention the Internet or forums.

[ChicagoGranny]

Are these actually Central Apneas? I seem to have several of them in my graphs. I am seeing my Sleep Dr. in a couple of days and wondered whether it was worth mentioning? She will have data (hopefully) available from my cpap monitoring provider.

Thanks

How may did you have? Over what period of time? How long were they (Open the Events tab in SH.)?

[ezliv]

New to all the acronyms....what is S.H.?

[D.H.]

First, please fill in your profile.

Different brands and models have different methods of making these determinations. Thus, what you're using might affect the score that is reported.

[ezliv]

Screen Shot 2018-06-05 at 11.40.28 AM.png (102.6 KiB) Viewed 1660 times

Screen Shot 2018-06-05 at 11.40.28 AM.png (102.6 KiB) Viewed 1660 times

[ezliv]

Sorry folks.....I posted it twice.

[ezliv]

Never mind....I thought I had put in my information on my machine already. Seems this is just going to be too much for me. I'll just ask my Dr.

[jnk...]

Never mind....I thought I had put in my information on my machine already. Seems this is just going to be too much for me. I'll just ask my Dr.

Don't give up, you are doing GREAT! It is worth it to learn it.

Here is an example of what Pugsy likes to see: viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-fo ... l#p1220783

But my 2 cents from what you posted is that your therapy is doing well and that the "centrals" aren't an issue, if that is as bad as it gets on any night.

I only said what I said about speaking to your doc in order not to discourage you from doing that. I like keeping docs in the loop.

But once you get your equipment info in and post the charts the way Pugsy likes them, you will get very specific, helpful hints, I'm sure.

No need to apologize. Hang in there! Ask your questions and get your answers. We aren't sensitive the way docs are. And if you can post what you've already posted, you'll have no problem listing equipment and organizing SleepyHead charts. You've got this!

[Okie bipap]

It is common to have a few central events when sleeping. When we are half awake, and half asleep, our breathing often becomes uneven. The machine often flags these irregular breaths as central apneas. When changing positions in the bed, we may take a deep breath and then hold our breath for a few seconds. This then gets flagged as as central apnea. If you are only having a few, there is nothing to worry about.

[palerider]

Are these actually Central Apneas? I seem to have several of them in my graphs. I am seeing my Sleep Dr. in a couple of days and wondered whether it was worth mentioning? She will have data (hopefully) available from my cpap monitoring provider.

Thanks

"Clear airway" is a term made up by Respironics to refer to what the rest of the respiratory industry calls a "central".

Whether they're legitimate ones or not is another question, You'd have to zoom in on the airflow and see if there's any disturbances in the flow *BEFORE* the flagged event. If there's a disturbance, then the flagged central is probably due to your moving around or something, and holding your breath while doing so.

[jnk...]

. . . refer to what the rest of the respiratory industry calls a "central". . . .

I'm perfectly willing to drink to that in the treatment-machine context, as this is; although, I believe that many in the diagnostic parts and research parts of the sleep industry might quibble a bit on the details of the wording in other contexts.

. . . airway status determined by the PAP device does not distinguish obstructive from central apneas scored by PSG. . . . -- https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article- ... .4.597.pdf

[palerider]

. . . refer to what the rest of the respiratory industry calls a "central". . . .

I'm perfectly willing to drink to that in the treatment-machine context, as this is; although, I believe that many in the diagnostic parts and research parts of the sleep industry might quibble a bit on the details of the wording in other contexts.

. . . airway status determined by the PAP device does not distinguish obstructive from central apneas scored by PSG. . . . -- https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article- ... .4.597.pdf

Well, I just did a google search for "clear airway", subtracting any reference to "respironics" and the only hits were a couple posts over on apneaboard.

[jnk...]

I'm very glad the big two have great ways of determining airway status now. Very valuable info, that. But I'm still stuck in the past to the point that when labels of airway status are used by any manufacturer to imply presence or absence of effort, it makes the hairs stand up on the back of my airway. So personally I applaud the carefulness of Respironics' choice of wording.

But that's neither here nor there. Your way of putting it in your explanation is perfect for this board. I just need to modernize my ear to present-day patient-centric treatment-centric terminology.

[palerider]

Personally, I think what's important is whether the centrals (because a central apnea is simply, by raw definition, any time you don't try to breathe...) are legitimate *sleep* centrals, or motion/arousal centrals... they're still centrals if the airway is open, but whether they just happen, or it looks like the patient is turning over to get more comfortable, and holding breath because of that... that's (I think) is the important bit.

Unfortunately, the machines aren't currently smart enough to say "oh, look, breathing disturbance, THEN a central... I'll just ignore that one". unfortunately.