Central Apnea Question for newbie

Hi!

I was recently diagnosed and started APAP 10 days ago. My AHI is averaging 7.6 and I have equal numbers of obstructive and central (clear airway) apneas. Each about 2.5.

I am concerned about the centrals and have read lots of posts about centrals. I would like to upload an image of my wave form from SleepyHead, but I don't know how. (Help there would be appreciated.) Half of my CA's appear to have a deep breath or two before the CA event. Is this just a sigh? They occur all night and not just when falling asleep or waking up, although they are more numerous then.

My sleep study showed only 6 Centrals, but my data since has shown about 20 per night. I am thinking that some of these are not real CA's and not significant.

jimodist wrote: I would like to upload an image of my wave form from SleepyHead, but I don't know how. (Help there would be appreciated.)

Take a screenshot. I think Sleepyhead will do it or use prt/scr key or Snipping tool if you have it on your computer.

Open the image to full size so it is easily read.
I use Vista snipping tool to create a screen shot and crop the image at the same time.
Prt/scr key will also take a screen shot if using XP. If laptop is used sometimes the Fn key has to be pushed at the same time as the prt/scr key
I think windows 7 has the snipping tool. Basic Windows 7 version may not have it but Home Premium does.
Once the screen shot is created save it in jpg format.
Upload the image to a host site. I use Photobucket it is free, there are others.
Once the image is uploaded then copy the ENTIRE IMG address. Be sure to include the opening and closing IMG in brackets. Paste that copied address into a post here.
Use the preview button. If you can't see the image try again because if you can't see it we can't.

Ah! Thank You so very much.

This is an example of what I am referring to.

jimodist wrote:Hi!

Howdy!

jimodist wrote: . . . recently diagnosed . . . concerned about the centrals . . .

The key is what exactly you were diagnosed with. If you had a sleep study (or two) at a lab/center, get a copy of the report(s), so you'll know for sure.

In obstructive sleep apnea, the obstruction itself is the problem, so the APAP is disigned to react to indications of impending obstruction. An open-airway apnea is generally an apnea to be ignored, both by the machine and by the user of the machine, in the context of OSA treatment.

A sudden increase in open-airway apneas is worth looking into, or an inordinate amount of them caused by PAP pressure. But other than that, open-airway apneas as scored by a home machine treating someone diagnosed with OSA are mostly meaningless, as far as I am concerned.

Naturally, your doc's opinion on that matters much more than mine as a fellow patient.

I would tend to classify your given example as "a few deep breaths, a sigh, and a pause." Happens all the time, even when we're awake. It is natural and appropriate. If it were to happen like that all night long in a mostly-constant repeating pattern, then that would be another matter completely, of course.

Hi Jimodist - welcome

What you have posted looks normal to me. You can see a sleep arousal looming from the increased volume of air being breathed (pattern of 4 increasing breaths), on the 4th breath the inspiration peaks, then a 'natural' corrective central follows. The increased breathing shown, would have 'blown off' CO2 via your lungs & the central immediately after was your body's way of restoring the blood CO2 level - that process is to signal a slowdown or to stop breathing until the chemoreceptors for respiration control detect the proper levels of CO2 in the blood.

So, that one event shown can be seen as a classic and effective respiratory feedback correction to an event (the sleep arousal).

Cheers

DSM

#2 - as a further thought, the 2 steps in that last large breath prior to the central, look like you may have turned or rolled over right at that point.