Can Congestion, Cold, Flu etc effect AHI?

I'm reposting this because I got no response on "My Story"

Over the last week my AHI numbers have been creeping up and up. Thursday was a GREAT day with only a .53, but Friday returned negative with a AHI of 9.97. only .97 of that was OA. 5.54 was CA and 3.51 were Hypopneas. Overall, the numbers have been higher with the Congestion in my Lungs.

Here's my question, do numbers generally go UP when you have Lung Congestion, Cold, Flu, Pneumonia or any other Lung related condition?

I've restated my question to flow better.

Affirmative for me

The answer to your question in my opinion is ...YES. It limits the air flow and affects your breathing. You most likely start to breath through your mouth which will definitely affect your therapy when you use a nasal mask.....

I think any kind of illness can affect it. I've been having extreme leg pain and my AHI has not been good. I think it's from all the tossing and turning to get comfortable.

I think that anything that effects our sleep architecture affects our AHI.

cpaptex,

For me I would have to say yes! I had a cold/sinus thing going on over the holidays and my AHI went from the mid 1's to the low 2's before, to the high 5's to the mid 6's for the week and a half to two weeks I had the illness. I also would wake up during that time with that old, still familiar exhausted feeling that I had in my pre-CPAP days.

I hope you feel better and once again get back to your normal numbers and sleep quality.

John

Not only the cold but also cold remedies (decongestants, etc) if you take them can affect AHI.

I switched to a full face mask while I had the cold and my AHI didn't go up more than by 4 ... but everyone is different.

Thanks for all the replys! I thought that it did too. My numbers jumped too much for no reason at all. I'm assuming that in a few days it will drop back to normal as I start to get better. And yep, my headaches and generally feeling of yuck was back at full strength yesterday when it hit 9.

I'm thinking about getting a full mask to use when I'm sick with a Cold etc.

It's a good possibility since you have a nasal mask. You may be opening your mouth to get more air and that causes the pressure to go down. Have you tried raising your humidity some. That can help. Or you may need a ffm for times when this happens to you. My problem was solved by merely raising the humidity on my cpap.

cpaptex wrote:I'm reposting this because I got no response on "My Story"

Over the last week my AHI numbers have been creeping up and up. Thursday was a GREAT day with only a .53, but Friday returned negative with a AHI of 9.97. only .97 of that was OA. 5.54 was CA and 3.51 were Hypopneas. Overall, the numbers have been higher with the Congestion in my Lungs.

Here's my question, do numbers generally go UP when you have Lung Congestion, Cold, Flu, Pneumonia or any other Lung related condition?

I've restated my question to flow better.

Sometimes I have nights where I have that frequent "tickle cough". Don't know why. No illness, no real congestion...just a lot of wake ups when I have a frequent dry cough. I see a lot more clear airway events on those nights. I already know that I woke up often to cough and I would assume that these are "awake" events. So if you have a restless night...lots of coughing or whatever...it is also very likely that the machine is scoring some events that are really "awake" false events. They can be open or closed airway.

So when we are ill we can't really rely on the data because the machine doesn't know if you are awake or asleep and it can mistake a cough for something else.

Pugsy wrote:Sometimes I have nights where I have that frequent "tickle cough". Don't know why. No illness, no real congestion...just a lot of wake ups when I have a frequent dry cough. I see a lot more clear airway events on those nights. I already know that I woke up often to cough and I would assume that these are "awake" events. So if you have a restless night...lots of coughing or whatever...it is also very likely that the machine is scoring some events that are really "awake" false events. They can be open or closed airway.

So when we are ill we can't really rely on the data because the machine doesn't know if you are awake or asleep and it can mistake a cough for something else.

I was concerned about that too. But once I fall asleep, usually about 30-45 min later I stopped coughing and nothing more until I get out of bed in the morning. I don't see anything obvious during that 45 min time span when I fall asleep. On the other hand, Mon-Fri when my alarm goes off at 5, 5:10 & 5:20AM I see lots of stuff all the time that I discard as not being meaningful. It's always when I get my best sleep:

The data that I'm really concerned about and that was out of the norm for me was throughout the evening and is in clusters. The clusters were all CAs. They also showed up as Periodic Breathing.

I actually spoke to the PA of my Pulmonologist who spoke to my Pulmonologist and they are scheduling another Sleep Study to see how significant all this may be, they said that it may take several sessions to get a good picture of what's happening. I sent him copies of my SH records and he also has copies of the records from the DME.


My issues are made more complicated because of the ILD.

cpaptex wrote:The data that I'm really concerned about and that was out of the norm for me was throughout the evening and is in clusters. The clusters were all CAs. They also showed up as Periodic Breathing.

Understood and it may be that you might need that other machine. People with other health issues (like your ILD) do present with more than the normal set of weird nights and they do need further evaluation if for no other reason then peace of mind. It could very well be that you have some nights where things roll along nice and normal and other nights where for some reason things go way beyond normal variances.

Obviously people with ILD or other lung issues or other health issues will likely have more of a pronounced "reaction" (for lack of a better word) to a simple upper respiratory infection than those of us (like me) with no other health issues. So it is very good to keep your health care providers in the loop and watch things much more closely than someone like me would need.

You know that tickle cough is probaly caused by sinus drainage. I am finding that if I set humidfier all the way up, I get the tickle cough and if I set it down a notch, I do okay. I also keep hall's cough drops around. Why I've never choked on one in my sleep, I don't know.

Pugsy wrote:Sometimes I have nights where I have that frequent "tickle cough". Don't know why. No illness, no real congestion...just a lot of wake ups when I have a frequent dry cough. I see a lot more clear airway events on those nights. I already know that I woke up often to cough and I would assume that these are "awake" events. So if you have a restless night...lots of coughing or whatever...it is also very likely that the machine is scoring some events that are really "awake" false events. They can be open or closed airway.

So when we are ill we can't really rely on the data because the machine doesn't know if you are awake or asleep and it can mistake a cough for something else.

Kairosgrammy wrote:You know that tickle cough is probaly caused by sinus drainage. I am finding that if I set humidfier all the way up, I get the tickle cough and if I set it down a notch, I do okay. I also keep hall's cough drops around. Why I've never choked on one in my sleep, I don't know.

Pugsy wrote:Sometimes I have nights where I have that frequent "tickle cough". Don't know why. No illness, no real congestion...just a lot of wake ups when I have a frequent dry cough. I see a lot more clear airway events on those nights. I already know that I woke up often to cough and I would assume that these are "awake" events. So if you have a restless night...lots of coughing or whatever...it is also very likely that the machine is scoring some events that are really "awake" false events. They can be open or closed airway.

So when we are ill we can't really rely on the data because the machine doesn't know if you are awake or asleep and it can mistake a cough for something else.

I'm going to try to raise the humidity. I went from 1 to 2 already. It's really a warm and muggy feel at 3. But that may also be good for the Lungs. I also used to keep a cough drop in my mouth before the xPAP came into my life. I never choked on one either.

Thanks for all of the advise!

Understood and it may be that you might need that other machine.

I got a good chuckle out of this. "That other machine" (if you meant an ASV) makes it sound Unmentionable: "The machine which shall not be named!" Thanks for the laugh. If you meant something else....... never mind! It still brightened my day!

I'm just praying that I don't get a cold for a while, although allergies haven't been too great this winter.