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Great information... I am learning much about SPO2. I too have a question on SPO2 results and if there should be a concern.

I have recently obtained a CMS50D+ and monitored a few nights now. My question is about the frequency of desaturation events. On two of the three nights, I show what appears to be a high number (200 to 211 desaturation events - from approximately 7:30 hours of sleep). The first night was 43 events. There are however only 3 random occurrences each night within the events of the SPO2 dropping below 90 but never below 88 and even with those, only for a brief period of time. Most of the events are drops like 95 to 91 or 94 to 90, etc. The monitoring parameters are set to look for a variance of 4 so the device appears to be "working as designed".

During this same period my AHI is great (i. e. last night was 0.94 AHI with 4 CSA and 3 H events). I have been feeling tired even though the OSA events appear to be treated successfully.

Should I be concerned at the shear frequency of deasturation events throughout the night as long as the lower level never drops below 88? Is the frequency of desaturation events impacting my overall sleep quality? Or indicative of other health issues? Is there a normal level or range in regard to desaturation frequency?

ZenDog wrote:Should I be concerned at the shear frequency of deasturation events throughout the night

What is your artifact %? I would be looking real close (zoom in) to see if there is evidence of momentary loss of contact artifact which will get flagged as a desat event but it really isn't.

Artifact % on the SP02 Assistant report shows 2.7%. When I zoom in on the SleepyHead report it does show breaks / spaces between the various 211 events. So perhaps I need to try taping things down and try again?

ZenDog wrote:So perhaps I need to try taping things down and try again?

If the number of "events" disturbs you then yes you probably should try to make extra sure that loss of contact isn't causing them.

If you want real member input from people who really know this pulse ox stuff you might start a thread of your own and post image of the report, etc to get input from people who really know these things. I have used one a couple of times. It was boring...I didn't desat (cpap fixed it) and I lost interest and sold it. So I know just the basics and that's about it. We have some forum members who really know a lot more than I do and can help better than myself.

As I posted on another thread I have turned to the private medical system here. Anyway, I've had an appointment with a doctor who says it would be interesting - due to my anatomy/data from sleep lab - if there was any difference between using CPAP and not if I sleep 100% on my side. He can, of course, test this correctly for two months' salary or I could go to the 'normal' lung doctor and get a home test again, which would possibly be accurate enough. Having already spent a fortune I've decided on the latter course of action but I have to wait a while for an appointment.

In the meantime I have experimented myself with mixed results. Three nights without the machine, sleeping on my side only. I would say one night I slept better than with CPAP, one the exact same and today I am a little more tired but not much and it was extremely hot last night. Last night, however, I did manage to get four hours or so of SpO2 measurements. Below are some images - the first two are from last night, no machine, the bottom two are from last month when I last measured SpO2 with the CPAP machine.

I'm no expert (hence my post here!) but there doesn't look to be much of a difference to me. And while I am aware I need more reliable data regarding using the machine or not I guess my question is this: The top two images, if this data is true, would this be an acceptable SpO2 result? It doesn't really drop below 95%, though it seems to be about 96% most of the night. Is 96% ok? Or should it really be 98%?

As always thank you very much for your time.

http://imgur.com/a/FH99H
http://imgur.com/a/wkXOE

http://imgur.com/a/rUCQn
http://imgur.com/a/ufh7q

If those were my results I would forget about OSA for now and get on with my life. If, in the future you feel you want re-testing then get it done, but for now I can't see the point.