What is the oxygen saturation (O2) goals?

So I read some but didn't find anything clear.

Is there a goal for oxygen saturation we are supposed to aim for?

I saw (when I was active here after husband first got his cpap), that low 2's for AHI is a good goal, though others have gotten significantly lower tweaking their machine.

The line given on the oxygen software is typically 88 or 90. Is that the goal, to have it always above 90 (or pretty darn close to always)?

Thanks.

I would think the goal of saturation is anything above 95/96 the higher the better. In higher altitudes it tends to go down a little and it's ok. my avg. sometimes runs around 94 to 95 during the day but because i'm at the 4500 ft level they don't worry about it as much. anything below 90 can be cause for concern typically below 88 for a certain period of time is when Medicaide/medicare will pay for oxygen however private insurances sometimes have different criteria. I'm getting O2 at night because my baseline was at 90-92 and frequently went down to mid 80's even with CPAP. and my ins. is paying for it or I wouldn't have agreed to it.

Thanks for the info. Last night a better night but still below 88 for short times. 95 during the day.
We will watch this and have been told that we can get a Dr to ask for 02 and a test will be taken and submitted to insurance and we can add it into our cpap.

Glad for this forum giving us the idea that 02 can be added to cpaps/apaps.

i think most insurance pays for o2 if it is below 88% for something like 5 minutes total over the whole night. normal depends on your physical condition and any medical conditions that may affect it. under tricare prime my wife's oxygen generator costs us around $16 a month which is 20% of the allowable $80. i'm pretty sure oxygen generators are rental for life and not rent to own like cpap.

My personal SpO2 goals are:

Always above 93%

If moderate to high exercion below 97%

If low exercion (e.g. at the computer) below 96% (like to see 95%).

Okay, but herein lies the problem.

A hypopnea is usually a 50% reduction in airflow with a desaturation of at least 3% (although this varies a bit depending upon the source). And an obstruction is closer to 100% reduction in airflow.

The result of these events is oxygen desaturation.

Apnea is considered clinically "treated" with an AHI under 5. So naturally if you sleep 8 hours you may have up to 40 events of varying lengths.

So is it even possible to stay above 90% the entire night given a low AHI of 2 or 3 with mixed hypopneas and obstructions?

jdr999 wrote:Okay, but herein lies the problem.

A hypopnea is usually a 50% reduction in airflow with a desaturation of at least 3% (although this varies a bit depending upon the source). And an obstruction is closer to 100% reduction in airflow.

The result of these events is oxygen desaturation.

Apnea is considered clinically "treated" with an AHI under 5. So naturally if you sleep 8 hours you may have up to 40 events of varying lengths.

So is it even possible to stay above 90% the entire night given a low AHI of 2 or 3 with mixed hypopneas and obstructions?

The world recond for under water breath holding is 22 minutes and 22 seconds (Tom Sietas 05/30/12).

Many times I have tried this simple experiment. At my desk I simply exhale gently and stop breathing. No pre-breathing simply exhale and stop for 30 seconds while watching my pulse oximeter. In the 30 and looking into the next 30 seconds my SpO2 reading will not vary more than 2% (sometimes it goes up a bit for a time).

The desaturations which occure due to Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are apparently much more complex than simply not breathing or breathing less for ten seconds!

Todzo wrote:The world recond for under water breath holding is 22 minutes and 22 seconds (Tom Sietas 05/30/12).

Many times I have tried this simple experiment. At my desk I simply exhale gently and stop breathing. No pre-breathing simply exhale and stop for 30 seconds while watching my pulse oximeter. In the 30 and looking into the next 30 seconds my SpO2 reading will not vary more than 2% (sometimes it goes up a bit for a time).

What?

We all understand that desaturations are much more aggressive during the night and that a simple hypopnea can desaturate 3% in 10 seconds. I'm not following the logic of using your daytime breathing here..? Don't night-time events always result in desaturations?

I still see 20 second obstructions in my reports.. I just started using a pule-oximiter and I think I managed to drop down to 79% for a bit last night..

Is there any known correlation between obstructions and desats? For instance is there a way to roughly predict the o2% drop in x seconds or does it affect everyone very differently?

jdr999 wrote:

Todzo wrote:The world recond for under water breath holding is 22 minutes and 22 seconds (Tom Sietas 05/30/12).

Many times I have tried this simple experiment. At my desk I simply exhale gently and stop breathing. No pre-breathing simply exhale and stop for 30 seconds while watching my pulse oximeter. In the 30 and looking into the next 30 seconds my SpO2 reading will not vary more than 2% (sometimes it goes up a bit for a time).

What?

We all understand that desaturations are much more aggressive during the night and that a simple hypopnea can desaturate 3% in 10 seconds. I'm not following the logic of using your daytime breathing here..? Don't night-time events always result in desaturations?

I still see 20 second obstructions in my reports.. I just started using a pule-oximiter and I think I managed to drop down to 79% for a bit last night..

Is there any known correlation between obstructions and desats? For instance is there a way to roughly predict the o2% drop in x seconds or does it affect everyone very differently?

During the daytime, sitting up, awake, alert, working at the computer as I was my exercion level should be above what exists in bed, at rest, reclined, and asleep. If the exercion level were high I suppose I would be sweating under those covers? Perhaps I did that sometimes during the OSA events?! My point is that our bodies reaction to the obstructive events makes it drain down the available oxygen in our blood much faster than what happens during the daytime sitting at the computer.

Another example of what I am talking about. I often use a pulse oximeter while walking to check heart rate. I also do indeed try to keep my SpO2 levels from exceeding 97% (actually if at mild aerobic levels 96%). I find that using techniques which I do believe reduce the ammount of air that I use in a given time period to about 1/4 of what I was using (exhale slow and place a pause between each breath while inhaling less slower) that it takes about 20 to 30 seconds to see my SpO2 level drop a single point. This is while walking at "low end of the range" aerobic levels.

I have not found research addressing this area of the physiology involved with OSA. Point me to it please if you find some.

Thanks!

Todzo

Just an update. We got an o2 concentrator for hubby. He raised about 2% for all his o2 rates. So most of the night he is now about 94/95% - and his sitting up rate is about 95% so we are good with that.
He spends a couple hours lower, before o2 concentrator he was at 88-90, with his o2 concentrator he is 90-92. With occasional dips lower (again not as low as before). So his below 88% is pretty non existent.
For us, that improvement is worth using the o2 concentrator.