Does this pulse oximetry report look like sleep apnea?

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, so apologies if this is a silly question.

My mom has started snoring about two years ago (she's 62) and it sounds more labored at times than regular snoring.
She doesn't snore when sleeping on her side, only on her back.

She has advanced periodontitis and I read that it may lead to sleep apnea.

Below are the results of her wearing a Wellue Sleep Oximeter overnight.

I attached a link to a 30 second audio of her snoring as well below, if it could give additional clues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSFXl9 ... e=youtu.be

We plan to record her sleep a few more times and possibly go to a doctor with the results, but I just wondered if you guys had any thoughts on this. Thanks in advance for any input.

Alex

No, that looks fine, though of course it's not at all the full 'test' you'd need for apnea, just one aspect of it.

I agree that her O2 looks fine. I listened to the audio, and it sounds as though the snoring is repeatedly arousing her from sleep, which may deserve some follow-up. Do she feel rested and sharp during the day, or not so much?

Thank you Julie and Miss Emerita. Feel a sense of relief. I was concerned since her oxygen went down to 91 during one of the drops.

Julie, do you think based on this basic report I should convince my mom to get a full sleep test?

Miss Emerita, she feels sharp and more or less rested but on weekends she will take mid afternoon naps.

That one sharp drop to 91% was most likely a loss of contact artifact. The pulse ox came loose. Real desats aren't that abrupt and don't recover that quickly.

I just read an article re napping by many older people, and there are other factors pointing to well known conditions besides apnea that aging people get, usually with cognitive and neurological issues that you might want to talk to her doctor about. Naps are just one symptom among many but sleep is not really the cause or focus.

Regardless of what Julie says, snoring, in and of itself, is bad, it reduces the effect and rest of sleep because the person snoring is working harder to breathe at all times.

Whether it's bad enough to count as sleep apnea is another issue, and a pulseox isn't a valid diagnostic tool.

Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions. Much appreciated.

Has anyone tried to reduce snoring through respiratory muscle training (like The Breather)? Any other ways forum members have used to reduce snoring?

This is going to sound weird, but throughout the night there are spikes were her pulse goes from 60-90 bpm. It's almost like a cycle. I'm curious if there is an ac vent over the bed that wakes her up or makes her roll over repeatedly during the night. That looks strange to me. But the o2 saturation is great never drops below 90.

The lack of significant drops in oxygen themselves doesn't mean no sleep apnea. Not everyone will have big massive drops with their OSA.
I have a friend who had an in lab sleep study where they watched everything and her final diagnosis was severe OSA with an AHI of over 60 per hour and her oxygen levels never really dropped below 93% from a baseline of around 97%. Now it is normal to see a slight drop during sleep and we would expect that.

Snoring itself it's always a positive sign either. We can have OSA and not snore and we can have lots of snoring without OSA but lots of snoring does stand a good chance of meaning the airway is compromised and sleep quality itself can be negatively affected.

Pulse oximeters can't always tell us enough to know for sure that we don't have a sleep apnea problem. They are a great screening tool but they can't always give us enough information to know that we for sure don't have a problem. Now when they are positive....it's pretty conclusive but when they aren't positive it's not always a for sure negative result. If your mom has other signs of sleep apnea she really needs a sleep study and preferably one that measures sleep status and not just breathing. Maybe a good home study that pretty much does everything that is done in a sleep lab could be done. Do you know about home studies?
Explained in detail here
http://freecpapadvice.com/home-sleep-tests

Finally....I know we are all concerned about our parents. I would be in the same boat as you but my mom simply would refuse any sort of cpap treatment. She has already told me this and while thankfully I have watched her sleep a lot I don't see evidence of OSA...it wouldn't matter if I did or not. She refuses to even think about it. Ask your mom if she is even open to doing anything about it IF she does have some sort of sleep disordered breathing problem. My mom is 88 years old and she doesn't do a damn thing she doesn't want to no matter what I say. Frustrates me to no end but it is what it is.

The pulse rate changes during sleep...actually sort of normal. Our pulse rate will change with the different sleep cycles or even with a dream. The fact that they cycle...actually normal.

Pugsy - Thank you for all the details! Glad the pulse rate looks normal. Really useful to learn about the home sleep tests, as well! I'll bring it up to her.

I think you're bringing up a great point - I'll see what my mom says to it all. Glad to hear there's no signs of OSA with your mom!

Thanks Eric! there actually is an AC that is a foot or so away from her feet, perhaps it was waking her up. Interesting observation!