Will central apneas show up in reports?

[bugo]

I had a sleep study done about a year and a half ago. I had 77 obstructive apneas and 21 central apneas that night. I now use a CPAP machine and while it helps, it hasn't been the game changer that I hoped it would be. If I generate a report using Dreammapper or Sleepyhead will it show central apneas? I am worried that I'm having central apneas most nights and since the CPAP only treats obstructive apneas I might not be being fully treated. How will a central apnea show up in Sleepyhead, if it shows up at all?

[mesenteria]

The statistics at the side bar do show "Clear Airway" occurrences and they are flagged in purple throughout the Flow Rate chart. Clear airways are SleepyHead's indicators of centrals. So, yes.

[LSAT]

I had a sleep study done about a year and a half ago. I had 77 obstructive apneas and 21 central apneas that night. I now use a CPAP machine and while it helps, it hasn't been the game changer that I hoped it would be. If I generate a report using Dreammapper or Sleepyhead will it show central apneas? I am worried that I'm having central apneas most nights and since the CPAP only treats obstructive apneas I might not be being fully treated. How will a central apnea show up in Sleepyhead, if it shows up at all?

If your treated OSA has a low AHI and you only have a handful of CA's ...they are insignificant.

[jnk...]

Any home machine that reports AHI will not ignore any apnea. All apneas are reported. That is the one thing you can trust most in home-machine-generated reports. So, yes, any deep-enough and long-enough pause in breathing will be reported as an apnea whether there is an obstruction or not.

In fact, one slight problem with home reports is that home machines will report some pauses in breathing that an in-lab/center PSG sleep test would ignore as insignificant and would not report. So the limitations of what home machines report, as far as apneas, is the exact opposite of your concern. Home machines can overreport apneas, not underreport them. That is why we use the data as trending data, not as exact reports equal to a lab PSG.

[bugo]

Should I worry about the 21 central apneas that occured during my sleep study? My AHI has been under 2 most of the time over the last couple of weeks. Sometimes it is a little bit higher, sometimes it is much higher, up to 30 or more.

[jnk...]

The sleep study is water under the bridge. Bad obstruction can be part of the cause of central apneas during the diagnostic study. Centrals often go away once the body heals from the obstructions.

The main variable under your control is what pressure your machine is set at. So you look for the pressure that, over time, gives you the lowest average AHI--which automatically includes events with obstruction and without obstruction.

If you have nights with occasional high AHI, it can be worth it to collect the data from one of those nights and to post shots of it here to get input on what may be happening.

[TedVPAP]

Worrying isn't helping you. Data and discussion will. Use sleepyhead. See the three links below.