Downloaded data off card

I went today and downloaded data off card to my DME (required at 6 weeks) I was amazed at what the RT said- The avg. AHI for the 6 weeks was only 4.9 for AHI and 0.1 for the AI which those numbers aren't bad at all. I've had days in the high teens but this is the avg. what blew me away tho was the fact that the RT said there was NOTHING that they can do for the HI's--it's just shallow breathing and there isn't anything that can be done about that. My question is --is that true?? I thought HI's were more than just shallow breathing and you treat them the same way as you do Apneas. Heck if all they were concerened about were the apnea's I probably wouldn't even be on CPAP because most of my events were hypopneas.

HIs may be what we all have the most but they probably do no harm - the AIs do great harm and you need to try to get those to 5 or less per night. HI is shallow breathing but at least it is breathing. AI is no breathing at all and that is not a good thing.

When a hypopnea is scored during a PSG, it means the event likely matters. When a home machine calls a change in breathing a hypopnea, it may or may not matter, since it is not defined the same way that a a PSG-scored hypopnea is defined. That is why one can't put as much stock in the machine estimates as one can the numbers from a PSG scored by an experienced (hopefully, anyway) human tech (with a little help from some software) looking at much more information than a home machine uses to come up with its estimation of the number of events.

My opinion is that when someone is starting out and is using a ResMed, he should pay a lot of attention to leak and to AI but ignore HI and AHI for a while. Later those numbers may come in handy for minor tweaking to find an optimal pressure or range of pressures, but all numbers given by home machines are estimates that are provided for trending purposes only. In other words, what the HI and AHI numbers are is not as important as whether those numbers are tending to go up over time or tending to go down over time and whether those numbers get better or worse after a change is made in the therapy pressures or comfort settings.

Thanks then the RT was mostly correct. I appreciate that--that also means that my numbers are very good and therapy is going as it should! My AI numbers have always been low highest being .7. I still wonder sometimes why i'm not sleeping as good as I should be--I seem to be waking several times during the night although I usually fall back to sleep and i'm NOT having to get out of bed to go to the bathroom so thats good! but it stil seems fragmented to me. I'm also still tired although I seem to be accomplishing a little more since cpap. (I wouldn't have been able to get nearly as much canning done i'm sure) I'm sure that's a question for the dr. when I see him on Tues.

karessamom wrote:. . . I still wonder sometimes why i'm not sleeping as good as I should be--I seem to be waking several times during the night although I usually fall back to sleep . . . I seem to be accomplishing a little more since cpap. (I wouldn't have been able to get nearly as much canning done i'm sure) I'm sure that's a question for the dr. when I see him on Tues.

The brain has to relearn the concept of staying asleep through several sleep cycles, if it went a long time without making it through one cycle uninterrupted. Give it time. Just chuckle to yourself when it happens, enjoy the sensation of being in bed, and be patient with your brain. Be sure to take full advantage of every ounce of energy by exercising and eating better and enjoying life. That helps the whole process along.

jeff

I hope things will settle down enough that I can start exercising more, It's been canning season for the last month and a half--between tomatoes, apples, peaches, grapes etc. once i get my grape juice done i finally might be able to breathe LOl and inbetween all that i'm trying to find a job. I guess no wonder i'm tired still. pre cpap though i know i'd only be half way thru

jnk wrote:when someone is starting out and is using a ResMed, he should pay a lot of attention to leak and to AI but ignore HI and AHI for a while.

That's generally applicable advice and in no way specific to Resmed as a brand.

Cheers,

Bill

HI on other brands are much more bothersome that on a ResMed.
For instance, the default event defintions on an Intellipap Auto makes most events appear as hypopneas. Events scored as hypopneas on a DeVilbiss Intellipap Auto would be scored as apnea by a ReMed. Ignoring DeVilbiss hyponeas could be outright dangerous.

jnk was right when he wrote, specifically about the ResMed:

jnk wrote:when someone is starting out and is using a ResMed, he should pay a lot of attention to leak and to AI but ignore HI and AHI for a while.

The interpretation of any event, on any brand, is brand specific. There are no standards for machine identified events - though there are some for PSG events.

A "ResMed hypopnea" is very different from a "PSG hypopnea" a "DeVilbiss hypopnea", a "Respironics hypopnea" or for that matter, any other brand's. This is true off all brands.

I felt miserable on my PB with half the hyponea reported by the ResMed I am trialling now. And my worst de-saturations were recorded on the DeVilbiss which recorded few apneas at all.

It is never a good idea to overgeneralize.
O.