CSR showing up all of a sudden

I have been have good results with my apnea treatment using a Resmed autoset. I had not been checking my report on sleepyhead as my total events were under control (less than 2). How ever when I looked recently I saw that on one particular day and only on one day, CSR was reported. No CSR before and since. Should I be worried?

By the way I have been using the CPAP for 6 months now.

I suffer from occasional CSR as well. It is a particular type of central apnea. I used to get it fairly consistently about once every month or two. The last time I had it was November. I have made a couple of changes that I think reduced the incidence of CSR. One was that I asked my doctor if I could cut the dose of my beta blocker (bisoprolol) blood pressure med in half. I used to take it twice a day, and I now take it in the morning only. It reduces the heart rate and as a result I think it reduces blood flow and can make the CVS more sensitive to central apnea. Just my own theory, but it seems to have helped. The other change I have made is to change to a fixed pressure CPAP mode instead of the auto mode. Again just my theory, but I think my AutoSet was chasing hypopnea events that were central in nature with more pressure, and the higher pressure was actually causing more central events and sometimes the full CSR cycle. If you zoom in on that event area, you are likely to see a waxing and waning of the breathing effort and typically CA events at the minimum effort points. See an example of mine below.

You may want to follow when these events are occurring for pressure, and also when you are having CA events to see if there is any pattern of it happening when the machine has increased pressure.

I am not a medical professional, but I don't think the occasional CSR flag is anything too serious. If it becomes a regular occurance you should discuss it with your GP or heart specialist. It can be an indicator of reduced function of the cardiovascular system. It also can happen more frequently if you are living at a significant elevation above sea level.

If you post your full Daily Detail page for that day, I may be able to make some more comments...

I'll also add that CPAP machines are very good at capturing "Periodic Breathing", but unless you look at the wave form (Sierra has a very good example of CSR) It could easily be another form of periodic breathing. I also understand that your CSR series needs to be 15 continuous minutes before it is considered medically significant. CSR is associated with CHF, do you have CHF?

As a rule one-off events may be ignored, if they happen frequently they need to be looked at.

My head is spinning from all the acronyms y'all use (being a newbie and all). Is there a glossary somewhere I can print out?

I did have a heart ultrasound taken last year and the cardiologist did not mention CHF. I have high blood pressure and borderline LVH which I believe was caused by untreated apnea. I don't think I have CHF, not sure if it is developing now. I do go to the gym and I would think inability to exercise is a CHF symptom. Screen shots are attached. I think the pressure range is too wide how ever the CSR did not happen at very high pressure. I was probably close to waking time when this happened.

Does this help?

Got it. Yes that is what I see. A smooth pattern of waxing and waning.

I don't believe that is CSR. Periodic breathing yes. See how on many of those episodes the initial breath is large, CSR starts very small and builds the wans down to nothing and the cycle restarts. BUT it is something to discuss with your doctor.