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is AHI under 15 a reasonable goal?

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AgreeableCrimsonMantis8785 +0 points · over 6 years ago Original Poster

my AHI is very rarely below 5 which I understand to be the goal, I notice when I check my results every morning that when I get an AHI greater than 5 such as 14.2 last night, that the res med formula gives me an AHI score of 2 out of 5; this leads me to conclude the goal o a 5 AHI might be the gold standard, but that an AHI under 15 or ok?

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NiceSilverBison1316 +0 points · over 6 years ago

You are right that the AHI goal is < 5. Mild sleep apnea is considered _> 5 < 15. Moderate is _> 15 < 30 and Severe is _> 30 per hour. Under 15 is considered mild, but not okay. I had an AHI of 12 on my first sleep study and was still determined to need CPAP or oral appliance therapy.

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AgreeableCrimsonMantis8785 +0 points · over 6 years ago Original Poster

Thank you for your response, I wonder why res med gives AHI only 5 of 100 points on their scale, and why they gave a score of 2 out or 5 to a 14.2 AHI?

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NiceSilverBison1316 +0 points · over 6 years ago

I think you are comparing apples and oranges. The only AHI score that actually matters is your number of episodes per hour, not a percentage.

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wiredgeorge +0 points · over 6 years ago Sleep Enthusiast

I agree that the points you receive are not actutally metrics but may be there as a guidepost. If you stop breathing 14 times and hour while asleep, this is NOT good. It isn't as bad as 15 times per hour but the long view on this is that your breathing stops and oxygen levels may be tanking. PAP therapy is intended to keep your airway open so best figure out what you can do to get that number down to a zero AHI. Have you talked with your doctor about WHY the AHI is so high? I suspect your prescription may need tweeked.

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sleeptech +0 points · over 6 years ago Sleep Enthusiast

It can be rather individual. What was your initial AHI before treatment. If it was 120, the < 15 is pretty darn great. If it was 20 then < 15 is not much of an improvement. Less than 5 is generally the goal, but in the real world there must sometimes be compromises. Also, do you have restless legs? That can artificially inflate the AHI indicated by a PAP device.

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