Periodic breathing ?

[guffy2]

Hi
What exactly is Periodic Breathing ? Mine is showing 12% - 13% .
Thanks
Bob

[Pugsy]

What is your AHI and the event breakdown for your AHI..as in ClearAirway (CA) index...
Obstructive Apneas (OA)index.... and Hyponea index (HI)

Definition below.
PB

Periodic Breathing is a Respironics data feature defined as a persistent waning and waxing breathing pattrn which repeats itself between 30 and 100 seconds. The nadir of the breathing pattern is characterized by at least a 40% reduction in airflow from an established baseline flow. The pattern must be present for several minutes before it can be identified as periodic breathing. No therapy adjustments are made in response to periodic breathing.

Sometimes it is CSR
Cheyne-Stokes respiration is an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by progressively deeper and sometimes faster breathing, followed by a gradual decrease that results in a temporary stop in breathing called an apnea. The pattern repeats, with each cycle usually taking 30 seconds to 2 minutes. It is an oscillation of ventilation between apnea and hyperpnea with a crescendo-diminuendo pattern, and is associated with changing serum partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Cheyne-Stokes respiration and periodic breathing are the two regions on a spectrum of severity of oscillatory tidal volume. The distinction lies in what we observe happening at the trough of ventilation: if there is apnea, we describe it as Cheyne-Stokes respiration (since apnea is a prominent feature in their original description); if there is only hypopnea (abnormally small but not absent breaths) then we call it periodic breathing. Physiologically and mathematically, the phenomena are less different than they appear, because breaths that are smaller than the anatomical dead space do not actually ventilate the lung and so - from the point of view of gas concentrations in an alveolus - the nadir of hypopnea in periodic breathing may be indistinguishable from apnea.

These phenomena can occur during wakefulness or during sleep, where they are called the Central sleep apnea syndrome (CSAS).

System One calls lumps this together with Periodic breathing..

[cpaptex]

I wish that I had something to contribute that what Pugsy said, unfortunately I don't. But 12-14% seems high to me. I suggest that you talk to your Sleep Dr. If you have a Pulmonologist, I would be talking to him/her too. My answer from my Pulmonologist. is that "we need to watch it, but it doesn't mean anything just yet" It's not comforting to get a non-answer. But I haven't been on the machine that long either.

I think that you would need to know if this is also causing significant events of desaturation in order to be an area of concern.

[guffy2]

Thank for the replies , Was at the sleep DR last week ,and we are trying the auto pap for two
weeks and see what happens. Thanks again.
Bob