AHI all over the place!

quilterB · Post by **quilterB** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:19 am

I started using my software a little over a month ago. I gradually reduced my range from 7 to 20 down to 7 to 14. My AHI was staying below 5 and sometimes actually got to between 2 and 3. Now for the past 5 days I have been consistently over 5 even up to 10. I don't know that I have anything different going on. My 90% pressure is also going up to between 12 and 14 instead of between 8 and 11. I know that there are a lot of contributing factors to having this therapy be successful, but I am at a loss here. Any help (as always) is greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Linda

TerryB · Post by **TerryB** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:28 am

Spending more time on your back instead you side can increase the occurrance of AIs and the pressure required to push through them. Also, medications or alcohol. Have you looked at leak data?

TerryB

quilterB · Post by **quilterB** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:35 am

No alcohol in the past week at night. My average 90% leak is often all over the board from about 45% to 59% but does not correlate with my AHI. One of my best nights had an AHI of 2.5 with a 90% leak of 88 and a large leak of almost 2 hours. (I have th e large leaks under control and have had mostly 0 for the past 5 nights.

curtcurt46 · Post by **curtcurt46** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:54 am

I have had similar readings that I could not explain, though mine AHI's were in a narrower range. I am starting to believe we can have a good handle on all the factors we control. The one thing we can't control is the actual dynamics (how your body reacts to cpap this particular time)of the obstructive event/events. More REM sleep could mean more AHI's. Our REM sleep can vary from night to night. It's my experience that more OA's and H's occur in REM. Sometimes we focus on daily events, which is fine, however you need to also look at the trends and averages over say a 30 day period. By doing this you will average out the skewed events. One bench mark I am looking at is the PSG pressure titration and associated AHI. If I hit around that mark I am pleased.
Of course this is only my humble opinion for what it's worth.
Curtcurt46

maskjkie · Post by **maskjkie** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:06 am

quilterB wrote:I started using my software a little over a month ago. I gradually reduced my range from 7 to 20 down to 7 to 14. My AHI was staying below 5 and sometimes actually got to between 2 and 3. Now for the past 5 days I have been consistently over 5 even up to 10. I don't know that I have anything different going on. My 90% pressure is also going up to between 12 and 14 instead of between 8 and 11. I know that there are a lot of contributing factors to having this therapy be successful, but I am at a loss here. Any help (as always) is greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Linda

How are you feeling in the mornings and during the day?

quilterB · Post by **quilterB** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:53 am

No more morning headaches. That is a big benefit. Still feel tired much of the day and yawn a lot. That really bothers me because it seems so rude to be yawning when having a conversation with people. Can't seem to get past that. Don't take naps, although I have never been one to take many. I guess I could say that I am seeing improvements, but not as much as I thought I would after almost 6 months of therapy. Baby steps, right!!

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:58 am

quilterB wrote:Baby steps, right!!

RIIIIIGHT!

Hang in there.

Den

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:40 am

quilterB wrote:One of my best nights had an AHI of 2.5 with a 90% leak of 88 and a large leak of almost 2 hours. (I have th e large leaks under control and have had mostly 0 for the past 5 nights.

Good that you have the large leaks under control most nights.

As for that "best night" low AHI and Large Leak of almost 2 hours.... that AHI was skewed considerably by so much time being spent in "Large Leak". As I understand it, the REMstar auto stops recording data during Large Leak time and also drops the pressure down to the minimum pressure set in your range. It was not simply not recording the many apneas/hypopneas that were probably happening while you were in "Large Leak". Not recording them means any events you were actually having during those two hours were not being counted in toward your AHI for that night.

AHI all over the place!

AHI all over the place!

sometimes we have better nights than others

Re: AHI all over the place!