Does the mix of events comprising your AHI matter?

[old dude]

Let's pull a number out of the air and say that one's AHI is 4.0. Does it matter to your health and efficacy of your therapy if the 4.0 number is made up of all Hypopneas, all OAs or some mixture of the two?

My layman's logic would tell me that OAs should be worse than Hyponeas, but that's just a WAG on my part.

[Wulfman...]

Let's pull a number out of the air and say that one's AHI is 4.0. Does it matter to your health and efficacy of your therapy if the 4.0 number is made up of all Hypopneas, all OAs or some mixture of the two?

My layman's logic would tell me that OAs should be worse than Hyponeas, but that's just a WAG on my part.

That's pretty much the reality. Apneas are events of not breathing (for at least 10 seconds) and hypopneas are a reduction in breathing.

Den

.


Based on the American Sleep Disorders Association Criteria for Measurements, Definitions, and Severity Ratings of the Sleep Related Breathing Disorders Task Force Report:

• Apnea is defined as the cessation of airflow 10 s.

• Hypopnea is defined as a recognizable, transient reduction, but not a complete cessation of, breathing 10 s. A 50% decrease in the amplitude of a validated measure of breathing or a < 50% amplitude reduction that is associated with either an oxygen desaturation of 3% or an arousal must be evident.

• Obstructive apneas and hypopneas are typically distinguished from central events by the detection of respiratory efforts during the event.

• A respiratory effort-related arousal (RERA) is an event characterized by increasing respiratory effort for 10 s leading to an arousal from sleep but which does not fulfill the criteria for a hypopnea or apnea. A RERA is detected with nocturnal esophageal catheter pressure measurement, which demonstrates a pattern of progressive negative esophageal pressures terminated by a change in pressure to a less negative pressure level associated with an arousal. Novel techniques are available that may allow for increased technical ease in the detection of RERAs.

• The RDI is defined as the number of obstructive apneas, hypopneas, and RERAs per hour averaged over the course of at least 2 h of sleep as determined by NPSG.


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[robysue]

Sure, if the OA and H last the same length of time you'd expect the OA to be worse for the body.

But things get a bit more complicated if you are comparing very short 10-15 second OAs to very long 40+ second hypopneas where the air flow drops substantially more than the bare minimum needed to score an H.

And then also complicating matters is the fact that if the events are all well separated in time that's probably less damaging than a whole lotta events in a 10-15 minute period.

[DonaldST]

You all have no FREAKING idea what you are talking about.

[SleepyBobR]

Oh come on now Donald. Why don't you tell us how you really feel?

[old dude]

What's up with the spate of trolls on the forum lately?

Am I missing something somehow?

Interesting that Donald and mr. Concerned signed up about 4 hours apart...

[RogerSC]

The traditional thing to do with trolls is to ignore them, then they eventually go away. If you talk about them or with them, well, that's why they're here, and they'll stay forever.

[Ptastic]

The traditional thing to do with trolls is to ignore them, then they eventually go away. If you talk about them or with them, well, that's why they're here, and they'll stay forever.

That is the traditional thing to do... yes.

But the old testimate speaks to us about a forum user long ago who was branded a 'Troll'. He felt that he did not deserve this title so he set out to be something that no one had ever seen before. A regenerating troll. No matter how hard the forum tried to ignore him, he would not go away. This troll ended up becoming 'The one who shall not be named' and rather than going away... it fueled him.

Have you tried to approach this troll from another direction? Perhaps the new testimate will have more insight as to how to deal with this 'super troll'.