Is RERA an important indicator of need for CPAP and sleep quality?

[tb123]

Wikipedia says that RERA is : a breathing disorder characterized by obstructive upper airway airflow reduction (which does not meet the criteria of apnea or hypopnea), associated with increased respiratory effort that resolves with the appearance of arousals (RERAs)

I had 5 RERA episodes last night... but if they don't meet the criteria of apnea or hypopnea, then does a CPAP actually help with this phenomena? Am I putting too much importance on it?

Thank you

[Dog Slobber]

Wikipedia says that RERA is : a breathing disorder characterized by obstructive upper airway airflow reduction (which does not meet the criteria of apnea or hypopnea), associated with increased respiratory effort that resolves with the appearance of arousals (RERAs)

I had 5 RERA episodes last night... but if they don't meet the criteria of apnea or hypopnea, then does a CPAP actually help with this phenomena? Am I putting too much importance on it?

Thank you

Yes, RERAs are treated with CPAP.
Yes, you are putting too much importance on it.

[tb123]

Lol, thanks for your honesty!

(And funny thing, my kids' toilet started smoking too-- I did this during the quarantine and cracked myself up. I like that yours has a nose!).

IMG_4692.jpg (78.79 KiB) Viewed 799 times

[palerider]

Wikipedia says that RERA is : a breathing disorder characterized by obstructive upper airway airflow reduction (which does not meet the criteria of apnea or hypopnea), associated with increased respiratory effort that resolves with the appearance of arousals (RERAs)

I had 5 RERA episodes last night... but if they don't meet the criteria of apnea or hypopnea, then does a CPAP actually help with this phenomena? Am I putting too much importance on it?

Thank you

5 is nothing.

Respiratory Effort Related Arousal,

Snoring and flow limitations increase respiratory Effort, and an auto CPAP reacts to those by raising pressure.

So, yes, the CPAP helps with that.

[Pugsy]

I won't even go much into the fact that for a real RERA to be identified we first have to know for sure a person is actually asleep and guess what these machines can't do???? They can't determine sleep status at all.

So when we see RERA flags what we are really seeing is the machine saying the flow rate or breathing pattern LOOKS LIKE the breathing pattern of someone who has had an arousal from some sort of respiratory related event. It's an educated guess and probably a good guess. So if we see a lot of RERA flags when can safely assume at least some poor sleep quality and likely related to the airway but this isn't the gospel. It's why we can't assume that RERAs automatically mean UARS either. It's not a marker to be used for UARS people using cpap. Remember the machine has no way to know if we are asleep or not. We can have false positive flagged awake breathing events in all categories and that includes RERAs.

But regardless...a total of 5 through the entire night isn't worth worrying about especially if the AHI is low and the person feels like their overall sleep quality was decent.

[tb123]

Got it, this is all helpful info. Thank you!

[jnk...]

In order for a machine to be considered medical, it has to be considered one that addresses or fixes medical problems. Thus the importance of giving medical names to what the machines are for and do and treat.

But from a patient's point of view, I personally consider it easier to think of it all as simply as this: Imperfect sleep-breathing can disturb sleep; optimized PAP is the best way to improve sleep-breathing.

The technical names for classifications of imperfect breathing are cool and are useful to the medical people for proving things to payers. We as patients fixing obstructive-type issues, however, generally focus primarily on getting our breathing the best it can be, as reported in the numbers from our home-treatment machines, without worrying too much about the residual measurements that are reported but that don't go completely away even when our pressure(s) is/are optimized to the best of our ability using reports and software.

I work to get my breathing the best it can be--but no better than that.

[tb123]

Ah.. good perspective. Thanks.

[jnk...]

Ah.. good perspective. Thanks.

Another man's perspective that differs a bit from mine, in case it comes in handy for you . . .

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ecli ... 8/fulltext

[zonker]

I work to get my breathing the best it can be--but no better than that.

because you are such a humble guy?

[jnk...]

I work to get my breathing the best it can be--but no better than that.

because you are such a humble guy?

I've taken humility to a whole new level.

[zonker]

I work to get my breathing the best it can be--but no better than that.

because you are such a humble guy?

I've taken humility to a whole new level.