Abbreviations

As a comparatively newcomer to Sleep Apnea, may I ask those who post to do so without the use of abbreviations. CSR – AHI etc. e.g what do they mean.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Hi Drew, welcome to the site! The team here could put together a list of common abbreviations that we can link for newcomers to the site. Oftentimes, the short-hand helps facilitate discussion due to the lengthiness of many of the definitions. I'm happy to start a list here and we can eventually have it moved into a FAQ if that is helpful. Also, others feel free to contribute definitions. Thanks!

• AHI: Apnea Hypopnea Index. This is a measure of the number of apneas and hypopneas you have over the course of a night divided by the number of hours slept. There are a number of different indices for this, that change based on what's included in the calculation, here's an example: https://sleepdata.org/datasets/shhs/variables/ahi_a0h3. The following article also has a brief explanation of this: What is Sleep Apnea?

• CSA: Central Sleep Apnea, not to be confused with Complex Sleep Apnea. Central sleep apnea (CSA) is related to abnormalities in how the brain senses and responds to changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide while breathing. Learn more

• CSR: Cheyne-Stokes respiration. Here's a fairly technical explanation: Cheyne-Stokes respiration with central sleep apnea (CSR-CSA) is a form of periodic breathing, commonly observed in patients with heart failure (HF), in which central apneas alternate with hyperpneas that have a waxing-waning pattern of tidal volume, PubMed. Also, here's a great explanation by @DanM.

• OSA: Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common type of sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea happens when the throat closes frequently while sleeping. The nightly breathing cessations are due to the airway becoming “obstructed”. Learn more

Let me know if you want better clarifications of any of these.

in your self education regarding sleep apnea, this stuff will come. Suggest you start leaning on google to help with acronyms you don't know. Kind of like a baseball fan using terms like ERA and RBI, etc. All ball fans will fall back on those acronyms as their meaning is widely known. Problem with PAP therapy discussion is there are a lot of terms and acronyms that are uncommon and folks often ask about things related to these terms. I have to look them up. If you start looking stuff up, you will self educate and I am one hundred percent certain that your knowledge will make you a lot more effective in your own course of therapy.

There are a ton of acronyms used. Could you suggest some you would like to know more about? I could fill pages if I listed ever one I see.