I am having to many Central Apneas

[bbuck]

Based on the report below does anybody think I am having to many Central Apneas and what I can do about it

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[rested gal]

I'm not a doctor, so this is just my take on the report you showed in your post.

A Central Apnea index of 2.3 seems quite low, and the centrals appear to be scattered pretty widely throughout the night. They are not tightly clustered together. I'd probably assume they aren't a problem.

Some of them could be resulting from simply turning over during sleep. Any effort (like when turning to the other side while sleeping) might result in your holding your breath. Like the way we often hold our breath when awake and doing something that takes some physical effort.

It could also be that your body is still getting acclimated to "CPAP." Could be a touch of centrals brought on simply by using CPAP. That's something that could very well improve (fewer centrals) gradually over the next months. But even now -- those centrals are so few and far between, I personally wouldn't be worried about them. Most of them are short enough in duration to not be a problem, I'd think.

All that's just my opinion. But as I said, I'm not a doctor.

[rested gal]

Buck, your equipment profile says "S9 Elite", but you're using an Autoset (autopap), not an Elite (CPAP) machine. You might want to change that in your profile information.

With that in mind, perhaps try using your Autoset in just straight CPAP mode for a week or so, at a single pressure of 15 or 16. I'd keep EPR the way you have it now, so you'll be changing only one thing. See what kind of data straight CPAP gives you. You have a very tight autotitrating range set (nothing wrong with that) -- so you're already using it almost like straight CPAP anyway. I'm just wondering if the rising pressure changes might be causing you to hold your breath sometimes during your sleep.

[jlk]

I also am not a Dr., but I feel there way too many episodes too close together for too long of a duration. I wonder what your oxygen saturation is. This is something to bring up to your Dr. I would try to run on straight cpap at 16 cm for 1 week and see if that cuts back on them somewhat. The episodes are not responding very fast to the pressure change and you are running pretty tight already and are not quite reaching 16, so maybe setting at straight 16 and they may be reduced. I recommend using an oximeter for a while to see what is happening with your 02. Good luck! john

[bbuck]

Ok I will try straight Cpap for a week and see how that goes as far as an oximeter I will see if I can get one for Christmas.
Thanks everyone. BTW I fixed my equipment profile good catch.