central apneas

granti55 · Post by **granti55** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:13 pm

JohnBFisher wrote:Remember, if the total AHI (including centrals) is 5 or less, then it's considered normal. Also remember that these machines, while much smarter, can not truly tell if the event is a central apnea. For example, if you transition from wakefulness to sleep (or from sleep to wakefulness), then central apneas are perfectly normal and are NOT counted in an AHI value. These machines can not tell if that is the case. Of you might awaken enough to turn over in your sleep. During that movement, it's not unusual for us to hold our breath for a little while. The machine records a CA event, but apnea? Nope. That's why I prefer to call these Clear Airway events. There was not obstruction, but no guarantee they were central apneas. Additionally, it is possible to have an obstruction that occurs at the same time as a central apnea. The machine would mark that as an obstructive apnea, whereas a polysonmograph would score it as a central apnea.

Think of these machines as providing windsock data ... helpful, but not definitive.

Of course, having cautioned that, I also note that if the central apneas are severe enough that they interfere with sleep they MUST be addressed, since they also have all the same bad side effects on your body. So, if your AHI remains elevated and over 50% of them are noted as central, then you should discuss it with your doctor. And keep on doing so. I don't want to see anyone else suffer the same adverse health issues (kidney damage and diabetes) as I have suffered.

Hope that helps.

thanks again: Grant

avi123 · Post by **avi123** » Sun May 08, 2011 10:07 am

JohnBFisher wrote:

Think of these machines as providing windsock data ... helpful, but not definitive.

Of course, having cautioned that, I also note that if the central apneas are severe enough that they interfere with sleep they MUST be addressed[/color], since they also have all the same bad side effects on your body. So, if your AHI remains elevated and over 50% of them are noted as central, then you should discuss it with your doctor And keep on doing so. I don't want to see anyone else suffer the same adverse health issues (kidney damage and diabetes) as I have suffered.

Hope that helps.

John, since most sleep studies frequently do not classify hypopneas as being obstructive or central, and usually it is assumed that hypopneas are obstructive how can I determine what type it is to decide on most optimal treatment?

JohnBFisher · Post by **JohnBFisher** » Wed May 11, 2011 2:06 pm

avi123 wrote:... John, since most sleep studies frequently do not classify hypopneas as being obstructive or central, and usually it is assumed that hypopneas are obstructive how can I determine what type it is to decide on most optimal treatment? ...

Hmmm. I don't think you can determine what they are from the data from an xPAP device. Such a determination would require knowing your sleep state via EEG. That, of course, is the purpose behind the polysomnograph study.

However, since hypopnea mean "reduced breath", just as hyptension means "reduced (blood) pressure", you can pretty much assume that some breath is being measured (though reduced). Thus, by definition, it would tend to be obstructive. If however, a periodicity is observed (by more current machines), those will be marked as "periodic breathing", which would indicate a central involvement in the reduced breath.

At least, that's how I would tend to interpret data my machine provided.

central apneas

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