AHi under control chest pains now

Hi All,

My AHI is well under control - sometimes down to 0.0 (Much better than 76), now I am waking up with a tight chest with chest pains throughout the day and a few other concerning symptoms. I am getting my heart checked and working through things, however, I was wondering the following:

1) Does anyone want ot explain the correlation between OSA and Heart problems - I guess it's easy to explain how OSA would put the heart under stress, but is there an effect the other way?
2) Is there much of a correlation between OSA and Anxiety? If so, what is the connection between OSA and anxiety?
3) Is there a particular set of heart problems that seems to be related to OSA or is it more of a generic link at this time?

For people in a similar situation, have they tried upping the pressure on the cpap machine - mine is an autoset, but I was wondering if this might help.

Any thoughts and freeballing on this is welcome.

You should in fact go to Emerg right now and never mind your 'appointment'. You don't fool around with chest pains, and pondering on the internet over whether Cpap is involved or not can come later. You won't necessarily get fair warning of a cardiac arrest you know, if one is set to occur.

There isn't a direct connection of OSA and anxiety as such - it's respiratory and/or neurologic, but certainly if it's affecting your cardiac status (and it's a very big connection) then I imagine you'd feel some anxiety because you're not feeling 'well'. OSA can cause MI's, strokes, and is connected to diabetes, kidney problems, etc. etc. I say connected because not all causal or 'marker' situations are sorted out yet (which came first, etc.) but as I said, you need to go to the hospital and then worry about everything else later.

PS = been working in teaching hosps my whole life... don't fool around - and yes, I'm trying to scare you!

Hi Julie,

Thanks for your response and advice and concern. I had my first appointment with my cardiologist last Wednesday. He did a quick ECG (No obvious signs of a heart attack) and booked me in for a cardiac CT scan and an Echo Cardio Graph/Ultrasound and some bloods taken. I got the ultrasound done and the bloods done on the following day and was booked in for the CT scan the following day, but the appt had to be rescheduled (Machine was broken down, apparently).

I am rebooked in for the Cardiac CT scan on the 3rd July, so it's all in hand I think. I am alert to the situation and if I see the symptoms worsening or other symptoms arise, you can bet I will be going straight into A&E.

The more I think about this, the more I can see the connections - I had TMJ issues in my teens and 20s (lock jaw - often dislocating), Bad snoring with OSA taking a while before it became apparent enough. All the money spent getting better pillows, beds etc, sleeping on stomach (if that ain't a sign I don't know what is). Fortunately I'm onto it now. If I can understand it I can tackle it.

Well why didn't you say so (that you'd see the doctor)?

I hope everything's ok... Have you ever used a pulse oximeter (finger, etc.) overnight to check your 02 desaturations? It's something a lot of us do over here to get a good picture, because while there's more to OSA than desats, it's a big part of it and can tell you a lot... as can software like SleepyHead, free to download from the forum and so helpful at seeing all features of your C/Apap sleep... allows us to tweak pressures, etc. if we see the need, or find out if we've had centrals, etc... I wouldn't just raise your pressure randomly however, because it may not be the issue at all. Can you DL SleepyHead, post pix to Imgur.com and then link them to here so we can get a look?

Hi Julie,

Sorry to give you a scare.

I have just taken the screenshots from Sleepyhead and I am really interested in what you can determine from it.

Likewise, being an engineer, if you have any references to how to interpret this stuff, then please point me in the right direction

http://i.imgur.com/W4khZ95.png
http://i.imgur.com/RpBbkeu.png
http://i.imgur.com/rEApgRz.png
http://i.imgur.com/iRzccrl.png
http://i.imgur.com/MWXxFM2.png

It might take a few more minutes before the last 4 images upload....

RipSnorter wrote: Likewise, being an engineer, if you have any references to how to interpret this stuff, then please point me in the right direction

*points to the first post in the announcements section on the front page of the forum*