SpO2 drop without any apnea?

I had an SpO2 drop last night that woke me up with my heart racing a little bit. I had no apneas during this time, just some minor flow rate fluctuation. Since the Contec sensor doesnt update fast enough i took out my fingertip oximeter and it showed same SpO2 with over 100bpm+. Also I'm wearing a heart monitor prescribed by my cardiologist, so I pushed the button to record whatever happened at that time.

How can SpO2 drop with no apnea and no real issue with breathing?

Can you zoom out and show the entire night for the SpO2 graph. Plus a screen shot of the SpO2 assistant software would be helpful. We have to see whether it's a true recording, or artifact.

Because there are other causes for variations in oxygen saturation levels in the blood stream than just sleep apnea events.
There are other causes for variations in pulse rates than just sleep apnea events.
Sleep apnea isn't the sole cause for all our problems....no matter how much we want to blame sleep apnea for causing all our problems.
Because artifacts can happen and the drop seen isn't really a drop in the blood levels but comes from a loss of contact artifact clouding the results.

Very interesting... I can't say I have seen that before.

I observed that your machine raised the pressure a little during the desaturation.

As Pugsy pointed out, everything isn't caused by apnea. However this is very interesting and I will have to do some research to see if it is something that occurs frequently.

SpO2 is only a sign, a tool, that can provide info. Not very helpful on Sleep Apnea, and prone to False Data, due to poor connection when reading. Jim

Basically something else to worry over, subject to guessing what is really wrong. Blood Gas, much more useful. Apply K.I.S.S.!

raisedfist wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:58 am

Can you zoom out and show the entire night for the SpO2 graph. Plus a screen shot of the SpO2 assistant software would be helpful. We have to see whether it's a true recording, or artifact.

Here is the entire night. Also some mornings I wake up feeling a little starved of oxygen. HR shoots up to 120bpm. Arms feel a little odd. I'm wondering if it is "blood-gas" issue, but I had a blood-gas test the other month and it was normal. I got up this morning and was a little dizzy and felt like I had low SpO2 or something.

Also see the second screenshot from last night, where my Contec CMS-550F went crazy.

This is from last night. Do I need to replace my oximeter?

The only two major spikes I see, one of which appears to coincide with your machine turning off and back on again, are so short in duration as "to me" to be an issue were the sensor got moved and wasn't reading correctly.

For the majority of the night your getting tiny little spikes that don't appear to be unusual, the two spikes I see are really really quick.

If this was a true de-saturation, I'd expect to see a bit more of a curve in the graph not such a hard spike. (I could be wrong)

I wouldn't worry too much about the graphs but I would focus more attention on how your feeling when you wake up. Not feeling well, light headed, heart rate going up while your asleep are more things I'd be concerned about rather then the quick mini de-sats shown in the graphs.

"EDIT" I didn't look at the second image/graph as well as I should... Those supper hard spikes that are so fast... Make me think the sensor is going bad or something else is going on with the oximeter. Your going from normal to "having the bottom drop out" then back to normal again so fast that it doesn't seem to be something the oximeter is actually recording rather a lose of signal. It may be time to start shopping for another device. You could try taping the sensor onto your finger to secure it better, if you haven't tried this already. See if that makes any difference.


Best of luck,

Gryphon

Thanks. On the 1st screenshot, those heart rate spikes are normal for me. Ive always had them and they were worse before I was on a beta blocker. In 2017 I had an AFIB incident but no reurrance since then so far. But my heart rate likes to spike up for no reason. Cardiologist isn't concerned and said it was a nuisance more then an issue.

Hopefully the Echo Stress test this week will be reassuring.

But I still have these occasional awakenings where I felt like my oxygen was low or something. Not sure what would have caused them though unless I still have blood clots from last years DVT which is highly unlikely. I'm on a blood thinner.

The pulse spike around 6:40AM could be real but the rest look like a bad connection with the pulse ox perhaps due to rolling around in bed or something else. Or simply a bad dream or a lot of things. Your SpO2 chart looks fantastic - those sharp dips and recovery are unlikely to be real.

Your SleepyHead statistics are all normal...low AHI, low snoring and flow limitations, and your respiratory rate, minute ventilation and tidal volumes are all normal. I don't see any evidence of you having a blood gas issue while sleeping, and while awake either especially with the ABG draw being done to confirm.

I'd say ask your doc to order you a holter monitor to wear that records for 7-10 days or so to see if any irregularities are found. The next steps are probably EKG and ECG though, if you haven't already.