I'm no expert but with classic CS breathing pattern, there is a more clear cut waxing and waning of respiratory depth. Perhaps those are what's called periodic breathing which is sort-of a precursor to CS.
You've commented about this several times. Find the cause and treat it. But the bad news is...the cause is rarely found and the treatment is even rarer. So your Docs aren't jumping on that bandwagon because it's mostly a waste of time. Not saying a Neurology consult is a bad idea...but if central apneas are your only symptoms, I wouldn't expect much useful info to come out of the consult.xm41907 wrote: Neither my sleep nor gp doctor has been willing to investigate the underlying cause of the centrals. I'd think that finding the root cause and trying to fix that should be the primary treatment. I guess doctors feel differently. Ugg!
You REALLY need to get a recording oximeter to evaluate the significance of the centrals. If the desats are minimal or non-existant, then you can probably stop worrying so much.
I didn't have a very aggressive sleep Doc. I was having an average of 25% periodic breathing and fairly low desats...into the 70s. And of course I had the central apneas that come along with periodic breathing. Using an apap, I was averaging over 20 AHI with half being CAs.
Using the theory that hypoxic events alone can trigger PB/CS breathing and central apneas (did have a reference for that)...I added night-time oxygen. My situation is unique in that I have a compromised respiratory capacity and tend to run low O2 and I also live at 6000asl.
The addition of O2 for me keeps my O2 above 90% at night and almost completely shut down the PB episodes. But I also use a bipap st which kicks in and triggers breaths if I forget to breath. This use of supplementary O2 and an ST was the best treatment available pre-ASV...and for some, it works good. I'm not suggesting this to you...just offering my case as an example.
Anyway, good luck to you.
Jamis