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Re: How is severity determined???


Posted by Been There Done That on July 10, 2000 at 20:37:32:

In Reply to: How is severity determined??? posted by Micki on July 10, 2000 at 20:11:59:

Hey, somebody up in my rarified territory (over 100 RDI)! Yeah, I wonder now how I'm even still alive myself. Just going through some aged parent travails, and all I can say is that if this situation had developed last year, I simply couldn't have handled it pre-CPAP, probably would have killed me. I try to tell my family just how awful I felt and how horrid my life was pre-CPAP, but they just don't seem to understand.

From what I was told, the doctors get concerned when oxygen saturation gets below 90% (mine went down to 80%). An RDI of 20 (combo of apneas and hyponeas averaged per hour) seems to be the threshold for insurance to pay for CPAP. Some say that severe OSA is any RDI over 60, but in the letter written by the sleep doc to my PCP it was called "rather severe." In my case, the total blockages (apneas) were about equal in number to events of shallow breathing (hypopneas).

Pressure is simply how much air is needed to keep your airway open, it has nothing to do with RDI. Some folks can have few events but require high pressure to keep the airway open, and some with lots of events might get by with less pressure. So don't worry about that. Also, a high RDI doesn't mean you suffered mightily from OSA--but those whose symptoms are the worst pre-CPAP seem to do the best with CPAP (those with mild to moderate OSA are the least compliant--probably don't feel the improvement in how they feel is worth the effort). But with such a high RDI, you very probably will be like me--thrilled with the improvements CPAP brings.

Welcome to the club!

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