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Pamela
+0 points
·
over 4 years
ago
Original Poster
As of four weeks ago my husband had a sleep study. His AHI at the time of testing was 26.2. We are using a dream station CPAP machine with a Quattro for him facemask. He has not been below 9 and up to 24 during this time. He is a mouth breather and cannot use the nasal mask. Any tips on how to lessen the ahi? Pressure is 13-20 and he stays at about 15.5. He has been sleeping in a recliner.....seems to help to keep his head elevated. He is sleeping longer in the night. Any help would be appreciated.
Acceptable treatment is to get AHI below 5, and many get below 1. It would be helpful to know how much of his AHI is obstructive and how much is central.
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
over 4 years
ago
Sleep
Enthusiast
Hi Pamela
If those are the numbers with the machine on then I wonder who set it up and how do you get someone to help him get better results.
If one of the issues is with the mask it may still be possible to use nasal pillows in conjunction with a chin strap.
I get the feeling that you should be hassling his CPAP provider, with some urgency, to set everything up more effectively or to explain to you, step by step, what might be going wrong and what you might try to facilitate better results.
Sometimes central apnea is called clear airway by the CPAP manufacturers. It is better to use events per hour rather than just events. Assuming those are events and there was 8 hours sleep the total AHI breakdown is approximately:
CA Index - 3.4
OA Index - 9.8
Hypopnea Index - 3.6
This suggests central apnea is not insignificant and obstructive apnea is high. If you have a PC or Mac with a SD card reader, I would highly recommend downloading OSCAR to see what is going on. It will show when each event happens and what the pressure was when the events occur. Generally stopping obstructive apnea need more pressure while stopping central apnea needs less pressure. If you can do a screen save on the daily report and post it here I could comment more constructively. It is possible he would do better with a fixed pressure of 14 to 15 cm instead of being in automatic. But that is just a guess without seeing the actual graphs. If the machine is using a Flex setting, it may be worth try turning it off to see if that helps. Sometimes it can reduce pressure needed to control the obstructive events.
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
over 4 years
ago
Sleep
Enthusiast
This is Sierra's forte but I would have presumed that clear = central
It might be a good idea to check the numbers again and post them below Pamela.
Also if you have the opportunity to check on him while he is sleeping you might note if he has dislodged his mask or if the straps are sliding out of place or if he is in the habit of turning his face into the pillow or cushions etc.
Essentially checking for significant leaks and, of course, you also might note actual apnea events.
Most of this information is available through the machine, at least in theory, but it's not always easy to access or dependable to translate into practical solutions.
i use a dreamstation and found original pressure settings intolerable,disrupted sleep,upto 3 times a night,leaking mask.my sleep study results were ( obstructive 443/ central 2/mixed 7/hypopnea 62 ) now set pressure to min 8 max 11,results according to OSCAR for 30 days.ahi .91 obstructive index.32 hypopnea index .38 clear airway index .21 flow limitation index .36 rera index 1.28. the dreammapper results for 4 mar 2020 are ahi 2.3 total clear airway apneas 5, total obstructive apneas 14, total hypopneas 8. i now sleep all night,no waking up due to mask leaking.
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