Apnea duration question

I was reviewing my SH data for the month of December and expanded the Events--Obstructive Apnea tab and found durations that seem high. For example:
Dec 3 (255)
Dec 11 (158)
Dec 14 (144)
Most durations are in the teens and below, but several are in the (60) to (90) range also.

Is the (255) number saying that my PRS1 detected an 80% reduction in airflow for 255 seconds? That seems like a long time?
Comments please

A.T., those durations seem long to me. My longest reported has been 45 sec. Could be machine or software error? I'm not familiar with either of yours, but I think this bears further investigation. Perhaps an oximeter is in order. Your sleep center or doctor might set you up with one for overnight testing. In any event, I think should consider a consultation with your health care professional. Let's see what others have to say.

Jay

AT,

Maybe one of the senior members familiar with SH data will give an opinion of what could be going on. I agree with Jay these seem way too long. Perhaps you need to wiggle your high number on the auto setting, you may need a higher number to correct the problem. If senior members cannot explain this, I would then call dr & get his opinion, probably another sleep test. I may be reading this wrong, since I haven't used SH (yet).

Hope this works out OK,
Jen

How does the other data look? It could be a SH glitch.

Jay Aitchsee wrote:A.T., those durations seem long to me

Jay,
I may be onto something and agree with Jen that the upper number may need to be higher.

Short history--Was on CPAP 6.5 pressure until Nov 26, then CPAP 10.0 for three days, then new machine, APAP 5-8 until now.

Went back and reviewed SH data from October 1 to Nov 26,( CPAP 6.5) and found durations of 143, 218 and 94. Most durations were below 30, but many in the 50 range.
Data from three days of CPAP 10.0 pressure shows AHI less than 0.5 for all three days with only one apnea. One night no A or H!
APAP data shows AHI running about 2.5, but number of A and H higher than CPAP 6.5
I have been experimenting with different masks and that may be part of the problem. Does a 5-10 APAP pressure setting sound appropriate? CPAP 10.0 gives me blubber lips.


Have appointment with Pulmonologist in two weeks.

After seeing your post, I went into SH and checked.... My overnight events totals are in the teens range too.... most durations are less than 14.

with a record of 255 events in one night, is your AHI very high too??

if not, I agree with others that you may have a SH gltich, the experts here will chime in about any SH glitches.

if it is not a glitch, you may want to alert your doctor...

Denial Dave wrote:is your AHI very high too??

Dave,
Are you saying that you had 255 events in one night? Or are you referring to my one apnea duration of (255)?
Actually my highest AHI is about 5.0 and run about 2.0 to 4.0.
Thinking I either don't understand the SH data or glitch in software.

Bump

Could one of the senior members comment on SH apnea duration numbers

Thanks

I can see clearly on EncoreBasic how long each apnea lasted. Can you get EncoreBasic? Sounds like it'd be much easier to tell.

sylvie wrote:I can see clearly on EncoreBasic how long each apnea lasted. Can you get EncoreBasic? Sounds like it'd be much easier to tell.

Good idea, but Encore Basic is Windows based and I have a Mac.
Thanks anyway.

My individual events last no more than 15 seconds. My overnight total number of events are always less than 20.

My events always seem to happen around 2AM and then around the times I am waking up.

I really think that you are seeing a glitch. 255 events over an 8 hour period of sleep is about 70 events per hour.

If its true, then its not surprising that you are always tired.

AT, Just to be clear, you're not saying you're having 255 events, but that the numbers in parentheses in Events column are showing the length of time of some events, right? I'm not very computer savvy but I would have to think it's a SH error. Maybe someone knowlegeable could tell you how to reset your data,etc? Don't worry...yet.

DoriC wrote:AT, Just to be clear, you're not saying you're having 255 events, but that the numbers in parentheses in Events column are showing the length of time of some events, right? I'm not very computer savvy but I would have to think it's a SH error. Maybe someone knowlegeable could tell you how to reset your data,etc? Don't worry...yet.

DoriC,
Thanks for responding--No I did not have 255 events in one night. What I have had over the the last 90 days are individual apnea events lasting in seconds of (255) (158) (144) and many in the (50+) range. I hope I am not reading SH correctly or there is corruption in the files. The numbers are spread between two different machines a CPAP and an APAP and two different SD cards with SH installed on two Macs. I also did a very quick review of SH data from 8 months ago and found similar numbers.
I'm not worrying too much just yet, but am very concerned. Could someone with apnea duration knowledge give me a look see?

Look at the event on the airflow waveform. There's some weirdness in what the 255 second duration may mean. You should be able to click on the event and see the waveform at the correct time.

You may have stopped breathing completely for part of that 255 seconds, but breathed for part of that time period. Even though it has to drop to 20% of normal breathing, it doesn't have to stay 20% for the whole 255 seconds.

If you look at the airflow waveform, you may very well be very confused about how it came up with the 255 second number.

Or you may have actually stopped breathing the whole time. That's one of the reasons it's so important to have a machine that records airflow waveforms.

Oximeter might help.