Should I be satisfied with AHI of 1.8?

[jonnybee]

Original prescribed pressure from sleep study was 5cm and that is the pressure I continue to use. After finally finding a mask, chin strap, & tape combo that works, my AHI has settled around 1.8 with minimal leakage. Should I be happy with 1.8 and leave well enough alone or should I try bumping the pressure up to 6cm to see if I can drop the AHI a bit more? Am on my third month of CPAP. I would consult my sleep doc if I had one (GP who wasn't really interested is leaving town) and my DME isn't any better. Thanks.

[snnnark]

1.8 you lucky , lucky b........ (with apologizes monty python!)

Having said that I don't think that a 1cm bump from 5 would cause any problems and may catch those few AHI.
Let us know.

[jbn3boys]

I've been on cpap for 4 months, and am still struggling to get my ahi under control. My mask is fine, I have no problem wearing it, I just can't seem to get the pressure right. My numbers are all over the board, but rarely under 5. I'm not sure if I've been as low as 1.8 since my sleep study!

Just be aware that if you increase your pressure, and your ahi goes up, it could be due to central (or clear airway) events. But if you increase your pressure, and your ahi goes down, good for you!

jbn
(who dreams of 1.8 )

[rested gal]

AHI of 1.8 is nice and low.

No need to change pressure unless you just want to experiment some.

If it were me, I wouldn't hesitate to raise the pressure if I wanted to.

Bear in mind, I'm not a doctor!

[Janknitz]

Numbers are numbers. How do you feel?

1.8 suggests that your apnea is being well-treated, but I was showing very good numbers ( always below 1.0!) and still waking in the middle of the night in panic mode, sweating, heart racing, feeling terrible etc. When we looked at the data, it showed that while my AHI's were great, I was bumping up against the pressure ceiling around the time this was happening. By bumping my pressure up just a little, these episodes stopped. My AHI's continue to look good on paper, but now I feel good as well.

So if you are feeling well and not having occurrences like middle of the night wake-ups, you're probably fine where you are. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It's important not to get too hung up in the numbers--kind of hard to do when we have access to them.

[jbn3boys]

Numbers are numbers. How do you feel?
It's important not to get too hung up in the numbers--kind of hard to do when we have access to them.

GOOD point!

[BadThad]

AHI below 2 is GREAT. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[jonnybee]

I appreciate the replies/advice. I think I'll go with "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and leave everything where it is. It was a long battle finding a mask/chinstrap combo that eliminated the leaks so I think I'll leave everything as is. I generally wake up just a couple of times during the night so that part seems ok.
Thanks again.

[Willtry]

I agree " If it aint Broke dont fix it"

[billbolton]

Should I be happy with 1.8 and leave well enough alone

YES!

Cheers,

Bill

[kteague]

Should you be satisfied with an AHI of 1.8? Yes, if that's the best it can be or if you're satisfied with it. I would be too curious what a small pressure increase could do. It's likely you're still having about a dozen events over the course of a night, which is generally acceptable, but what if they are the cause of those awakenings? And is their duration non-threatening? Not trying to get you to be discontent, as has been noted, that AHI in enviable. But since you asked...

[DoriC]

I should probably know this but is raising the pressure the only option for knocking out any residual apneas if it's possible at all? We're getting AHI's under 2 and I don't want to rock the boat but I'm always wondering if it could be better. When I do experiment the data fluctuates a bit but stays basically the same and all I do is wind up confusing myself.

[Janknitz]

Dori,

When we bumped up my pressure because I was having those middle of the night quasi-apnic events (they didn't show on the data except for flat lining the pressure ceiling but I sure felt them), we bumped my pressure up somewhat dramatically--2 cm. It knocked them right out.

I still occasionally flat line on the ceiling pressure (by that I mean the pressure goes to the upper limit and hangs there for quite a while), but I'm not having those terrible wake ups, so I'm not worried about them. It doesn't happen too often.

I usually have an average 0.5 AHI, and occasionally I've had the 0.0 night. I haven't noticed any dramatic difference in how I feel, so I don't see that I need to do anything more to have the 0.0 nights more often. In fact, on the nights when I do get a 0.0., it looks to me like the machine is having to do a whole lot more pressure changing than my usual nights, so I'm not sure it's really better to have that.

[kempo]

I wished mine averaged 1.8 ( it's 3.1 ) but if it did I would still try 5.2 or 5.5 for say a week just to see what happened. It's not going to kill ya to try it. If it doesn't help you can always go back to 5.0. You'll never know until you try it.

Anyways, congrats on your therapy.

[Willtry]

I should probably know this but is raising the pressure the only option for knocking out any residual apneas if it's possible at all? We're getting AHI's under 2 and I don't want to rock the boat but I'm always wondering if it could be better. When I do experiment the data fluctuates a bit but stays basically the same and all I do is wind up confusing myself.

No in fact some times a decrease in pressure can have the same effect. some time's if the pressure is to high it can trigger events. but each person is different. if any personn was to change / play with their pressure settings I would suggest .5 changes only and test a few days.