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Posted by Perry on January 01, 2001 at 12:21:14:

In Reply to: Centrals From High Pressure????? posted by Charlie on January 01, 2001 at 10:34:36:

Charlie:

I have two different medical references on the issue.

The first mentions that there are multiple causes for Central apnea: If I recall off the top of my head - Brain Stem damage / degradation, chemical imballance, confusion of the normal lung breathing triggers, and pressure effects / tidal flow effects from CPAP or other Ventilation (can be an emergency "manual" ventilation concern).

For the fist two drug treatment may help, for the third (confusion of breathing triggers) CPAP usually helps by spinting the lung open, and for the fourth - increasing CPAP pressure can cause a Central. However, note that this applies only to a verry small percentage of people. It is probably the primary reason why CPAP is a perscriptiond device, and why a person should not increase CPAP pressure without medical consultation.

The Second reference, which I was just reading today is several sections from the 2000 printing of "Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine" which were provided to me. This talks about how Central Apneas need to be classified as those that respond to CPAP treatment (ie - CPAP improves them) and Centrals which do not respond to CPAP treatment.

I will note that I have only started to read that section and have to get back and finish it, and have not yet gotten to the clear explaination of why this pressure causes a problem (although I believe I know).

However, bottom line is that Yes - their can be a connection - for a very small minority. The vast majority of us do not have to wory about that at normal (4-20) CPAP pressures. You might go back through the past 3 or 4 fourms and search "centrals" for some more info I posted which gets into a little more detail.

For those, like Frank on this forum who have that problem. Use of a Timed backup BiPAP is usually the treatment.

Perry

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